Abstract
The expressed affect of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers as measured by the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia: Lifetime Version (SADSL) and their children (1 1/2 to 3 1/2 years) was observed in seminatural situations. The objectives were to investigate how maternal depression enters into affective interactions between mother and child and how the affect patterns of mother and child are related. Fortynine unipolar and 24 bipolar depressed mothers and 45 nondepressed mothers were observed on 2 days, 2 weeks apart, for a total of 5 h. Each minute was coded for the predominant affect of mother and child. Affects relevant to depression (anxioussad, irritableangry, downcast, pleasant, tenderaffectionate) were coded. Depressed mothers expressed significantly more negative affect than did control mothers. Mothers' expressed affect and their selfreports of affect on days of observation were unrelated. Mother's and child's affects, measured on different days, were significantly correlated. Unipolar mothers and mothers severely depressed spent significantly more time in prolonged bouts of negative affect. There was significant synchrony between their bouts and the negative bouts of their daughters. Gender of child was related to mother's and child's affect, and to relations between mother's and child's affect.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beardslee, W., Bemporad, J., Keller, M., & Klerman, G. (1983). Children of parents with major affective disorder: A review.American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 825–832.
Billings, A. G., & Moos, R. H. (1985). Children of parents with unipolar depression: A controlled one-year follow-up.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 14, 149–166.
Cohn, J., Matias, R., Tronick, E., Connell, D., & Lyons-Ruth, K. (1986). Face-to-face interactions of depressed mothers and their infants. In E. Tronick & T. Field, Maternal depression and infant disturbance.New Directions for Child Development, 34, 31–46.
Davenport, Y. B., Zahn-Waxler, C., Adland, M. L., & Mayfield, A. (1984). Early child-rearing practices in families with a manic-depressive parent.American Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 230–235.
Downey, G., & Coyne, J. G. (1990). Children of depressed parents: An integrative review.Psychological Bulletin, 108, 50–76.
Gershon, E., Hamovit, J., Guroff, J., Dibble, E., Leckman, J., Sceery, W., Targum, S., Nurnberger, J., Goldin, L., & Bunney, W. (1982). A family study of schizoaffective, bipolar I, bipolar II, unipolar, and normal control probands.Archives of General Psychiatry, 39, 1157–1167.
Gordon, D., Burge, D., Kammen, C., Adrian, C., Jaenicke, C., & Hiroto, D. (1989). Observations of interactions of depressed women with their children.American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 50–55.
Harder, D. W., Kokes, R. F., Fisher, L., & Strauss, J. S. (1980). Child competence and psychiatric risk IV: Relationships of parent diagnostic classifications and parent psychopathology severity to child functioning.The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 168, 343–347.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975).Four-factor index of social status. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Keller, M. B., Beardslee, W. R., Dorer, D. J., Lavori, P. W., Samuelson, H., & Klerman, G. R. (1986). Impact of severity and chronicity of parental affective illness on adaptive functioning and psychopathology in children.Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 930–937.
Kochanska, G., Kuczynski, L., Radke-Yarrow, M., & Welsh, J. (1987). Resolutions of control episodes between well and affectively ill mothers and their young child.Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 441–456.
Lorr, M., & McNair, D. (1984).Manual: Profile of Mood States. San Diego: Educational and Industrial Testing Service.
Siegel, S. (1956). Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences (p. 184–193). New York: McGraw-Hill
Spitzer, R. L., & Endicott, J. (1977).The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia: Lifetime version. New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute, Biometrics Research
Spitzer, R., Gibbon, M., & Endicott, J. (1973).Global Assessment Scale. New York: New York State Department of Mental Hygiene.
Stein, A., Gath, D., Bucker, J., Bond, A., Day, A., & Cooper, P. (1991). The relationship between postnatal depression and mother-child interaction.British Journal of Psychiatry, 158, 46–52.
Weissman, M., & Paykel, E. (1974).The depressed woman: A study of social relationships. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland, and by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transition from Infancy to Early Childhood. We owe many thanks to our colleagues: Leon Kuczynski for his ideas in the formative stages of the study; Judy Stilwell and Suzanne Denham for help in coding of affect; Anne Mayfield for interviewing mothers; Kathleen McCann, George Washington University, for advice on statistical analyses; and Rita Dettmers, Hattie Bingham, and Dorrit Greber for preparation of the manuscript.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Radke-Yarrow, M., Nottelmann, E., Belmont, B. et al. Affective interactions of depressed and nondepressed mothers and their children. J Abnorm Child Psychol 21, 683–695 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00916450
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00916450