Children's psychosocial functioning has been studied longitudinally from early childhood to adolescence, along with the parenting that the children have experienced. The children are the offspring of affectively ill parents and of well parents. The data provide information on the following interdependent questions: What are the various histories of children's adaptive and maladaptive functioning in late childhood and early adolescence? What are the interactive influences of parent and family functioning and child attributes on children's problems and competencies at successive developmental periods? The assessments in late childhood and early adolescence confirm and extend the findings of the earlier periods. Differences between children of control and affectively ill parents widen as the children get older, particularly with regard to disruptive and depressive behavior problems. Differences between offspring of control and affectively parents are present (though less marked) even when stressors in the affectively ill than in the control mothers. However, associations between maternal impairments and child functioning are not uniform at all ages. Also, effects of parental dysfunctional control strategies, affect regulation, and communication with their children differ depending on characteristics of the child--temperament and gender, and of the parent- child relationship. For example, sons of bipolar mothers are exposed to significantly more negative communications than other children. Daughters and unipolar mother, more than any other subgroup, are involved in a wide variety of impaired interactions.
