INTRODUCTION

1. Reciprocal Models of Child Behavior and Depression in Mothers and Fathers in Children at Risk for Early Conduct Problems Heather E. Gross1, Daniel S. Shaw1, Kristin L. Moilanen2, Thomas J. Dishion3, Melvin N. Wilson4 1University of Pittsburgh, 2 West Virginia University, 3 University of Oregon, 4 University of Virginia INTRODUCTION Maternal and paternal depression are associated with childhood externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Few studies have examined both maternal and paternal depression in relation to child outcomes in the same sample. Reciprocal models regard parenting behaviors and child characteristics as recurrent, transactional exchanges over time, where both parties affect the other. Research on parenting, including coercive models, has shown that child behaviors contribute to parenting practices. Existing research has found support for child effects on maternal depression; specifically, child behaviors such as defiance, noncompliance, externalizing problems, and antisocial behavior are related to maternal reports of depression. However, there is a need to examine the relation between child behaviors and paternal depression. MATERNAL DEPRESSION-AC OUTCOMES MODEL (N = 681) RESULTS Unconditional Growth Models of Parental Depression: Maternal Depression: Linear growth showed an adequate fit to the data, χ2 fit (3) = 7.68, p > .05, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .05, 90% C. I. = .00 -.09, SRMR = .06. Depressive symptoms decreased. Paternal Depression: An intercept-only model showed a good fit to the data, χ2 fit (6) = 7.61, p > .05, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .03, 90% C. I. = .00 −.09, SRMR = .06. Intervention Status Intervention Status Child Gender Child Gender AC-Reported Externalizing Behavior, Age 4 African American African American Hispanic Hispanic AC-Reported Internalizing Behavior, Age 4 Ethnicity – Other Ethnicity – Other Maternal Education Maternal Education Conditional Growth Models with Child Outcomes: Both models showed good fit. Significant path coefficients: Observed Noncompliance (Age 2) Observed Noncompliance (Age 2) • OBJECTIVES • To examine: • maternal and paternal depression growth curves over a 2-year span (child age 2 to 4). • the relationship between age 2 child noncompliance and growth in parental depression. • associations between maternal and paternal depression growth terms and age 4 child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Intercept Slope Maternal CESD Age 2 Paternal CESD Age 2 Paternal CESD Age 3 Maternal CESD Age 3 Paternal CESD Age 4 Maternal CESD Age 4 PATERNAL DEPRESSION-PC OUTCOMES MODEL (N = 297) • METHODS • Sample – Early Steps Multisite Study • 731 families with 2-year-olds (49% female) were enrolled from Pittsburgh, PA, Eugene, OR, and Charlottesville, VA • All families met study risk criteria by having socioeconomic, family, and/or child risk factors for future behavior problems • Across sites, 27.9% African American (AA), 50.1% European American (EA), 13.0% biracial, and 8.9% other races; 13.4% were Hispanic American. • At age 2, each family was randomly assigned to the intervention (Family Check-Up) or control group. Measures Noncompliance at age 2: Ratio of the duration (in seconds) of noncompliance to the total duration of compliance and noncompliance in several parent-child tasks (e.g., clean-up, delay of gratification, teaching, inhibition, and meal preparation) Parental Depressive Symptoms at child’s ages 2, 3, and 4: Center for Epidemiological Studies on Depression Scale (CES-D) Child Outcomes at age 4: Child Behavior Checklist, Internalizing and Externalizing factors, primary and alternate caregiver report PC-Reported Externalizing Behavior, Age 4 All path coefficients are unstandardized. Gender was coded as 0 = male, 1 = female, Group was coded as 0 = control, 1 = intervention. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001, + p < .10 PC-Reported Internalizing Behavior, Age 4 • DISCUSSION • Findings provide evidence of a transactional exchange between parental depression and child behavior in a ethnically and geographically diverse sample. • Strengths of this study include the size and diversity of the sample , the inclusion of male and female children, the use of data from a large group of fathers, and reports from multiple reporters to reduce informant bias. • The association between noncompliance and parental depression may be due, in part, to the proximal and frequent nature of noncompliant behaviors. • Future research on transactional processes would benefit from incorporating variables that explore the specific mechanisms by which symptoms of parental depression and child behaviors affect one another, such as child (e.g., inhibitory control), parent (e.g., caregiving quality), and contextual (e.g., neighborhood quality) factors. • These findings indicate the need for early identification and preventive interventions. The association between child noncompliance and concurrent depressive symptoms for both mothers and fathers suggests that mental health clinicians working with depressed parents include an assessment of child behavior and its impact on parental well-being. Intercept Note:s All paths were modeled. The above figures show the significant paths. Solid lines indicate significance of .05 or greater. The dashed lines indicate significance at the trend level (<.10). The paternal depression growth curve was an intercept-only model; a linear, slope term could not be reliably estimated. The research reported was supported by grant 016110 to the second , fourth, and fifth authors from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. For more information, please contact Heather Gross at heg6@pitt.edu.