Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University.
Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2021 Jan-Feb;50(1):77-87. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2019.1567346. Epub 2019 Mar 25.
Children of parents with depression are at increased risk for developing psychopathology. The purpose of the current longitudinal study was to examine the dynamic relations between parents' depressive symptoms and children's cognitions, specifically their attributions for the causes of life events. Participants were 227 parent-child dyads with one parent ( = 42.19, = 6.82; 76% female) and one child ( = 12.53, = 2.33; 53% female) per family. Parents either were diagnosed with a current major depressive disorder (= 129; 72.9% female) or were lifetime-free of mood disorders (= 98; 79.6% female). The Beck Depression Inventory-II was used to obtain a dimensional measure of parents' depressive symptoms, and the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire-Revised was used to assess children's attributions of negative and positive events. Evaluations were conducted 5 times across 22 months. We used latent difference score (LDS) modeling to examine the relations between changes in parents' depressive symptoms and changes in children's attributional style over time. The final model provided a close fit to the data: χ(30) = 35.22, = .24; comparative fit index = .995, root mean square error of approximation = .028, 90% confidence interval (CI) [.000, .060], standardized root mean square residual = .024. Parents' levels of depressive symptoms significantly predicted the worsening of children's attributions (i.e., becoming more pessimistic) over the 22 months, whereas children's attributions did not significantly predict changes in parents' depressive symptoms at the next time point. Preventive interventions should aim to both reduce parents' depression teach children strategies for examining the accuracy of their beliefs regarding the causes of life events.
父母患有抑郁症的孩子患精神病理学的风险增加。本纵向研究的目的是检验父母抑郁症状与儿童认知之间的动态关系，特别是他们对生活事件原因的归因。参与者为 227 对父母-子女对，每个家庭中有一位父母（=42.19，=6.82；76%为女性）和一位孩子（=12.53，=2.33；53%为女性）。父母要么被诊断为当前患有重度抑郁症（=129；72.9%为女性），要么终生无心境障碍（=98；79.6%为女性）。使用贝克抑郁量表二（Beck Depression Inventory-II）获得父母抑郁症状的维度测量，使用儿童归因风格问卷修订版（Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire-Revised）评估儿童对消极和积极事件的归因。评估在 22 个月内进行了 5 次。我们使用潜在差异分数（Latent Difference Score，LDS）模型来检验父母抑郁症状的变化与儿童归因风格随时间的变化之间的关系。最终模型与数据拟合良好：χ(30)=35.22，=0.24；比较拟合指数（Comparative Fit Index）=0.995，均方根误差近似值（Root Mean Square Error of Approximation）=0.028，90%置信区间（Confidence Interval，CI）[0.000，0.060]，标准化均方根残差（Standardized Root Mean Square Residual）=0.024。父母的抑郁水平显著预测了儿童归因在 22 个月内的恶化（即变得更加悲观），而儿童的归因并不能显著预测父母抑郁症状在下一个时间点的变化。预防干预措施应该既减少父母的抑郁，又教给孩子检验他们对生活事件原因的信念准确性的策略。
