The research objectives were to assess children's social-emotional status taking into account the developmental stage at which problems appear and the course of development of individual children. Children from 100 families were evaluated at two periods in their development: The younger children were seen first between 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 years and again three years later; the older siblings were seen first between 5 and 8 years and again 3 years later. The families differed by parental diagnosis: bipolar illness, unipolar depression, and normal control. Two sources of information were utilized -- one from the child and one from the mother. Many children of all groups had problems. The course of development of children of affectively ill mothers was markedly different from that of children of well mothers, and the course of the children of unipolar was different from the course of the children of bipolar mothers. Offspring of unipolar mothers, compared with the offspring of bipolar mothers, had problems at earlier ages. More of the offspring of affectively ill mothers than of well mothers had multiple problems. Most strongly differentiating the affectively ill from the well groups is the occurrence, by middle and late childhood, of depressive symptoms combined with hyperactive and/or disruptive behavior. In children of affectively ill mothers, the appearance of depressive symptoms at initial assessments was predictive of depressive affect and/or multiple problems three years later. Problems in the normal control group showed least continuity over time.
