McWey Lenore M, Acock Alan, Porter Breanne
Associate Professor in the Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Doctoral Program in the Department of Family and Child Sciences at Florida State University.
Child Youth Serv Rev. 2010 Oct 1;32(10):1338-1345. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2010.05.003.
This study examined depression and externalizing problems of children in foster care using a subsample of data (N = 362) from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Our findings indicated that more frequent contact with the biological mother was marginally associated with lower levels depression and significantly associated with lower externalizing problem behaviors. The association with externalizing problem behavior was significant even after controlling for gender and exposure to violence. Further, differences with regard to gender were revealed. Specifically, girls had higher depression scores than boys even after controlling for exposure to violence. Results suggest that supporting frequent, consistent, visitation may impact the levels of depression and externalizing programs children in foster care exhibit.
本研究利用全国儿童和青少年幸福调查中的一个子样本数据（N = 362），对寄养儿童的抑郁和外化问题进行了调查。我们的研究结果表明，与亲生母亲更频繁的接触与较低水平的抑郁略有关联，且与较低的外化问题行为显著相关。即使在控制了性别和暴力暴露因素之后，与外化问题行为的关联仍然显著。此外，还发现了性别差异。具体而言，即使在控制了暴力暴露因素之后，女孩的抑郁得分仍高于男孩。结果表明，支持频繁、持续的探视可能会影响寄养儿童表现出的抑郁水平和外化行为。
