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Mothers' depressive symptoms and infant negative emotionality in the prediction of child adjustment at age 3: Testing the maternal reactivity and child vulnerability hypotheses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2013

Theodore Dix  and
Ni Yan
Theodore Dix*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
Ni Yan
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Theodore Dix, 108 East Dean Keaton, Stop A2702, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712; E-mail: teddix@austin.utexas.edu.
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Abstract

This study examined individual differences in how mothers' depressive symptoms affect children's early adjustment. It tested whether problematic development among children high in negative emotionality is accentuated by (a) maternal reactivity, the negative reactivity of mothers with depressive symptoms to difficult child characteristics; and (b) child vulnerability, the susceptibility of negatively emotional children to the negative parenting of mothers with depressive symptoms. Based on 1,364 participants from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, results showed that mothers' depressive symptoms predicted greater risk for adjustment problems at age 3 among children who as infants were high rather than low in negative emotionality. Increased risk was evident for behavior problems, low responsiveness, high separation distress, and low social competence. Mediational tests suggested that increased risk reflected maternal reactivity: the stronger mothers' depressive symptoms, the more they responded with negative parenting to children high in negative emotionality. The proposal that child vulnerability mediates the greater impact of mothers' depressive symptoms on negatively emotional children was verified only for separation distress. The results support the proposal that, when mothers are high in depressive symptoms, aversive characteristics of children and their behavior increasingly influence early adjustment and do so because they elicit negative parent behavior.

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Regular Articles
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Development and Psychopathology , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 111 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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