Children of depressed mothers are at increased risk for internalizing and externalizing difficulties, as well as for impairment in affective, cognitive and interpersonal functioning. An extensive body of research indicates that the adverse parenting behavior associated with maternal depression contributes to these poor developmental outcomes. This body of work suggests, therefore, that parenting behavior is a potentially modifiable mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of risk associated with maternal depression. To date, however, limited research has been directed at understanding the mechanisms underlying the differential parenting behavior of depressed mothers. The proposed project will address this gap in knowledge by investigating the neurobiological and cognitive-affective bases of parenting behavior in depressed and nondepressed mothers. Specifically, we will use a variety of techniques, innovative in their use of personalized, ecologically valid stimuli, to examine the multi-level mechanisms that underlie the way in which mothers process and interpret their children's interpersonal behavior, how these processes differ between depressed and nondepressed mothers, and how they relate to parenting behavior and mother-adolescent interactional processes. Two hundred mothers, enrolled in the Oregon Health Plan, the state's medical program for low- income persons, will be recruited along with their adolescent children, to participate in the proposed project. Half of the sample will be women with a history of treatment for depression and currently elevated symptoms (Depressed group) and half will be women with no history of depression treatment and no evidence of current depressive symptoms (NonDepressed group). We focus on mothers with adolescent children because adolescence is a critical period in which rates of depression and other common mental disorders increase markedly and major shifts in mother-child relationships make parenting especially challenging. Assessments will include micro-social behavioral observations, functional neuroimaging, psychophysiological, and video- mediated recall protocols, which in our past research have demonstrated important differences in the processing of interpersonal stimuli by depressed persons. Findings from the proposed study will elucidate proximal interpersonal mechanisms that contribute to adverse parenting behavior and will thus inform the development of treatment and prevention strategies.
Depression in mothers makes it difficult to parent warmly and effectively. Depressed women's parenting difficulties place their children at risk for behavioral and emotional problems. This study will identify contributors to depressed mothers' parenting difficulties. The information to be gained will be helpful in developing treatments to help depressed women and their children.
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