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Resilience in the Face of Maternal Psychopathology and Adverse Life Events

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Abstract

Maternal psychopathology has long been recognized as a risk factor for psychopathology in offspring; however, some resilient youth achieve a favorable outcome in the presence of maternal psychopathology. We identified factors that predicted resilience among youth who were exposed to adverse life events, and also examined whether the same factors protected youth against maternal psychopathology and adverse life events. Main and interaction effects of child and family factors were examined employing cross-sectional data from a household probability sample of 1285 youth aged 9 through 17 collected at four sites. On average, children exhibited a greater degree of resilience when they had higher IQ, closer parental monitoring, better family functioning, higher educational aspiration, and were female. Interaction between maternal psychopathology and IQ was significant, and there was a trend between maternal psychopathology and gender. A higher IQ is a protective factor against both maternal psychopathology and adverse life events; whereas being a girl seems to be a protective factor against maternal psychopathology, but not adverse life events.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY

    Quyen Q. Tiet (Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology)

  2. Research Health Science Specialist, Department of Veterans Affairs, Stanford University, Menlo Park, CA

    Quyen Q. Tiet (Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology)

  3. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY

    Hector R. Bird (Professor of Clinical Psychiatry)

  4. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY

    Christina W. Hoven (Assistant Professor of Epidemiology in Psychiatry) & Robert Moore

  5. Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY

    Ping Wu (Assistant Professor of Clinical Epidemiology in Psychiatry)

  6. New York State Psychiatric Institute, USA

    Mark Davies (Research Scientist)

  7. Columbia University School of Public Health, New York, NY

    Mark Davies (Research Scientist)

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  1. Quyen Q. Tiet
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  2. Hector R. Bird
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Tiet, Q.Q., Bird, H.R., Hoven, C.W. et al. Resilience in the Face of Maternal Psychopathology and Adverse Life Events. Journal of Child and Family Studies 10, 347–365 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012528910206

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