University of California, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697, United States.
Soc Sci Res. 2012 Nov;41(6):1546-64. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.06.003. Epub 2012 Jun 23.
A large body of literature documents that children of depressed mothers have impaired cognitive, behavioral, and health outcomes throughout the life course, though much less is known about the mechanisms linking maternal depression to children's outcomes. In this paper, I use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to estimate and explain the consequences of maternal depression for 5-year-old children's internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. Ordinary least squared (OLS) regression models and propensity score models show that children exposed to both chronic and intermittent maternal depression have more problem behaviors than their counterparts with never depressed mothers. Results also show that economic resources and maternal parenting behaviors mediate much of the association between maternal depression and children's problem behaviors, but that relationships with romantic partners and social support do little to explain this association. This research extends past literature by illuminating some mechanisms through which maternal depression matters for children; by utilizing longitudinal measures of depression; by employing rigorous statistical techniques to lend confidence to the findings; and by using a large, diverse, and non-clinical sample of children most susceptible to maternal depression. Given that early childhood problem behaviors lay a crucial foundation for short- and long-term life trajectories, the social consequences of maternal depression may be far-reaching.
大量文献证明，患有抑郁症的母亲的孩子在整个生命周期中认知、行为和健康状况都较差，尽管人们对将母亲的抑郁症与孩子的结果联系起来的机制知之甚少。在本文中，我使用脆弱家庭与儿童福利研究的数据来估计和解释母亲抑郁对 5 岁儿童内化和外化问题行为的影响。普通最小二乘法（OLS）回归模型和倾向评分模型表明，暴露于慢性和间歇性母亲抑郁症的儿童比从未患有抑郁症的母亲的儿童表现出更多的问题行为。结果还表明，经济资源和母亲养育行为在很大程度上解释了母亲抑郁与儿童问题行为之间的关联，但与浪漫伴侣和社会支持的关系对解释这种关联作用不大。这项研究通过阐明一些机制来扩展了过去的文献，这些机制表明母亲的抑郁对孩子很重要；通过使用纵向的抑郁测量方法；通过运用严格的统计技术为研究结果提供信心；并使用了一个大型、多样化且对母亲抑郁最敏感的儿童的非临床样本。鉴于儿童早期的问题行为为短期和长期的生活轨迹奠定了重要基础，母亲抑郁的社会后果可能是深远的。
