Examining risk factors and mechanisms that contribute to vulnerability to psychopathology allows for exploration of underlying processes. Risk research distinguishes between risk factors, which increase the statistical likelihood of a disorder, and vulnerability factors, which are more proximal to the child and represent causal mechanisms in the chain of events leading to the onset of psychopathology. Risk factors for depression include both biological and environmental factors. Parent-proband and child-proband family studies demonstrate clustering of depression in families. Thus, parental depression represents a risk factor for depression in youth. Vulnerability factors for child depression have also been examined. Social information-processing models specify cognitive factors -- including a pessimistic explanatory style and negative cognitive errors -- as potential vulnerabilities; whereas, interpersonal/attachment models specify dysfunctional internal working models as potential vuinerabilities. Parental depression may increase depression vulnerability through a number of potential mechanisms, both biological and psychosocial. Psychosocial risk mechanisms include negative life events and family stress. ? ? Family expressed emotion (EE), a measure of family emotional climate, strongly predicts outcome among adults with mood disorders. More recent work indicates that depressed children may be particularly likely to live with a high EE parent; high EE predicts more negative one-year outcome in children following hospitalization for depression; and parental depression increases the likelihood that parents will be high EE. Thus, parental EE may represent one mechanism by which parental depression increases depression vulnerability; however, its' relationship to depression onset in youth has not yet been established. Only recently have researchers begun to explore the links between risk and vulnerability in child depression. Utilizing a longitudinal design in a sample of pre-adolescents with and without a depressed mother, we propose to examine the links between a known risk factor (parental depression), a potentially important psychosocial mechanism (EE), the development of cognitive-interpersonal vulnerability, and the manifestation of both depressive symptoms and disorders during a critical period in the development of coping and self-concept. ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH066077-05
Application #
7321079
Study Section
Risk, Prevention and Health Behavior Integrated Review Group (RPHB)
Program Officer
Avenevoli, Shelli A
Project Start
2003-12-18
Project End
2010-05-31
Budget Start
2007-12-01
Budget End
2010-05-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$499,455
Indirect Cost
Name
Boston University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
049435266
City
Boston
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
02215
O'Connor, Erin E; Langer, David A; Tompson, Martha C (2017) Maternal Depression and Youth Internalizing and Externalizing Symptomatology: Severity and Chronicity of Past Maternal Depression and Current Maternal Depressive Symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 45:557-568
Kemp, Gail N; Langer, David A; Tompson, Martha C (2016) Childhood Mental Health: An Ecological Analysis of the Effects of Neighborhood Characteristics. J Community Psychol 44:962-979
Chan, Priscilla T; Doan, Stacey N; Tompson, Martha C (2014) Stress generation in a developmental context: the role of youth depressive symptoms, maternal depression, the parent-child relationship, and family stress. J Fam Psychol 28:32-41
Cruise, Ruth C; Sheeber, Lisa B; Tompson, Martha C (2011) Behavioral correlates of maternal expressed emotion in interaction tasks. J Fam Psychol 25:781-4
Freed, Rachel D; Tompson, Martha C (2011) Predictors of parental locus of control in mothers of pre- and early adolescents. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 40:100-10
Tompson, Martha C; Pierre, Claudette B; Boger, Kathryn Dingman et al. (2010) Maternal depression, maternal expressed emotion, and youth psychopathology. J Abnorm Child Psychol 38:105-17