Chronicity of Maternal Depression, Child-Rearing Beliefs, and Child Problematic Behaviors at 54 months

Chronicity of Maternal Depression, Child-Rearing Beliefs, and Child Problematic Behaviors at 54 months

Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the current study examined whether more progressive versus more authoritarian maternal child-rearing beliefs moderate the association between maternal depressive symptoms across the child’s infancy and preschool years and child problem behaviors at age 4 ½. The Center for Epidemiology Scale of Depression (CES-D) was repeatedly administrated to 1364 women at their children’s ages of 1, 6, 15, 24, 36 and 54 months to examine the chronicity of clinically significant levels of maternal depressive symptoms. Maternal child-rearing beliefs were assessed with the Parental Modernity Scale (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985). Child behavior problems were measured with the Child Behavior Checklist collected from the children’s mothers and childcare providers. More progressive (child-centered) child-rearing beliefs were found to moderate the association between chronic clinical levels of maternal depressive symptoms and caregivers’ reports of child externalizing behavior problems. Higher externalizing behavior problems were reported for children of chronically depressed mothers but only when their mothers held more authoritarian (adult-centered) child-rearing beliefs, even after controlling for maternal education and income-to-needs ratio. In contrast, when mothers held more progressive, child-centered child-rearing beliefs, child externalizing behavior scores were unrelated to the chronicity of maternal depression.