Maternal attachment and depressive symptoms in urban adolescents: the influence of coping strategies and gender.

The current study examined coping strategies as mediators of the relation between maternal attachment and depressive symptoms in a sample of urban youth. Participants included 393 adolescents (M age = 12.03, SD = .85) participating in a larger study of the impact of stressful life experiences on low-income urban youth. Participants completed self-report measures of maternal attachment, coping strategies, and depressive symptoms at two time points. Results indicated that attachment was not a significant predictor of depression over time. Path analyses demonstrated limited support for a model in which higher maternal attachment predicted higher active coping, which in turn predicted fewer depressive symptoms at Time 2. Maternal attachment was a significant predictor of higher support-seeking coping, avoidant, and distraction coping. Higher maternal attachment predicted greater use of active coping strategies for boys but not for girls, and greater use of active coping strategies predicted fewer depressive symptoms for girls but not for boys.