Maternal Emotion Regulatory Strategy Mediates Maternal Depression and Child Internalizing Problems

1. Maternal Emotion Regulatory Strategy Mediates Maternal Depression and Child Internalizing Problems Alysha D. Thompson, Jason J. Bendezu, Sarah E. Shea & Lisa W. Coyne

2. Background • 10-15% of preschoolers exhibit internalizing behaviors (Briggs-Gowan, Carter, Irwin, Wachtel, & Cicchetti, 2004). • 20-50% of children and adolescents with depression have a family history of depression (Kovacs, 1997; Puig-Antich et al., 1989; Todd et al., 1993; Williamson et al., 1995). • Possible reasons for child depression: • Heritability • Environment/Situational Factors • Parenting Practices

3. Developmental Model of Childhood Depression Big stressors or accumulated daily hassles Vulnerability to depression, poor coping skills Sustained negative emotion = + (Kovacs et al., 2006)

4. Parent Emotion Regulation • Preschoolers rely on parents for: • Direct emotion regulation • Modeled strategies for coping with their negative emotion

5. Experiential Avoidance (EA) • Parent acceptance of emotions is important because: • May lead to parents’ direct acceptance of child emotions • May lead parents to model adaptive coping strategies • Parents may feel more in control and be able to better address child emotions

6. Hypotheses • Mothers reporting more experiential avoidance will be more likely to report feeling depressed and will be more likely to report internalizing problems in their children. • The relationship between maternal depression and child depressive symptoms will be better explained by maternal experiential avoidance mediating this relationship.

7. Participants • Participants were recruited from urban Head Starts serving diverse neighborhoods. • N = 144 mothers of Preschool children • Children ages 3-6 • Mean Mother Age = 32.01 • Median income = $17,000 • Mean number of children = 2.53

8. Participant Ethnicity

9. Participant Marital Status

10. Measures • Maternal Depression: The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, Depression Scale (DASS-21; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) M = 4.41, SD = 6.63, Range = 0-42, α = .87 • Child Internalizing Problems: The Child Behavior Checklist, Internalizing Problems T Score (CBCL 1.5-5: Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000) M = 47.07, SD = 11.92, Range = 28-84 • Experiential Avoidance: The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ; Hayes et al., 2004) M = 31.48, SD = 8.02, Range = 9-54, α = .58

11. Correlations *p < .05 **p < .01

12. Maternal Experiential Avoidance Maternal Depression Child Internalizing Problems EA Partially Mediates the Effect of Maternal Depression on Child Depression .24** .32** .23**(.16) Numbers in parentheses indicate standardized betas after mediation. A Sobel test found the mediated effect was statistically significant (z = 2.34, p < .05). Baron & Kenney, 1986

13. Discussion • Parents who are unwilling to experience their child’s negative emotions may not be able to address these emotions and thus have children who are more likely to be depressed. • Parents who are depressed are especially likely to have children who are depressed.

14. Strengths and Limitations • This was not a clinical population and thus it is notable to have found these relationships even in a community sample. • Data relies on self-report measures. • Depressed individuals tend to respond in a mood consistent way. • A subscale was used to measure depression rather than a full scale score. • AAQ had poor internal consistency.

15. Future Directions • Replicate these findings using other methods of measurement. • Use a clinical sample and look at results over time. • Specifically examine how this relates to the development of children’s emotion coping skills. • Treatment studies targeting experiential avoidance to alleviate both maternal and child depression.

16. References Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2000). Manual for ASEBA Preschool Forms & Profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families. Baron, R. M. & Kenney, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182. Briggs-Gowan, M. J., Carter, A. S., Irwin, J. R., Wachtel, K., & Cicchetti, D. V. (2004). The brief infant–toddler social and emotional assessment: Screening for social–emotional problems and delays in competence. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 29, 143−155. Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K., Wilson, K. G., Bissett, R. T., Pistorello, J., & Toarmino, D. (2004). Measuring experiential avoidance: A preliminary test of a working model. The Psychological Record, 54, 553-578. Kovacs, M., Devlin, B., Pollock, M., Richards, C., & Mukerji, P. (1997). A controlled family history study of childhood-onset depressive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 54, 613–623. Kovacs, M., Sherrill, J., George, C. J., Pollock, M., Tumuluru, R. V., & Ho, V. (2006). Contextual-emotion regulation therapy for childhood depression: Description and pilot testing of a new intervention. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 45, 892-903. Lovibond, P. F., Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional stress: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behavior Research and Therapy, 33, 335-343. Puig-Antich, J., Goetz, D., Davies, M., Kaplan, T., Davies, S., Ostrow, L., Asnis, L., Twomey, J., Iyengar, S., & Ryan, N. D. (1989). A controlled family history study of prepubertal major depressive disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 46, 406–418. Williamson, D. E., Ryan, N. D., Birmaher, B., Dahl, R. E., Kaufman, J., Rao, U., & Puig-Antich, J. (1995). A case-control family history study of depression in adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 1596–1607.