It has been well established that children of depressed mothers are at increased risk for developing emotional and behavior disorders. However, although there is evidence to suggest mother-child interactions play an important role in this process, the specific mechanisms through which these exchanges compromise child outcomes have not yet been identified. This proposal purports that interactions that influence children's emerging self-regulatory abilities are likely to be an important part of this process, given the link between deficits in regulation and the development of psychological disorders. The proposed study examines the effect of maternal depression on maternal scaffolding behaviors, and the impact of scaffolding on children's regulatory development. Continuity in maternal depression is proposed to be particularly detrimental to children's regulatory development, and subtype of maternal depression (disengaged versus intrusive) is expected to differentially affect scaffolding and children's regulation. A total of 248 children (43 percent female, 40 percent non-white) and their families have participated in structured laboratory visits, naturalistic home observations, and completed questionnaire data at five assessment periods from 36 to 60 months. Behavioral coding schemes will be applied to this data. The research design is longitudinal, descriptive, and correlational. ? ?
