Department of Psychology.
J Abnorm Psychol. 2021 Jan;130(1):60-77. doi: 10.1037/abn0000640. Epub 2020 Nov 19.
Hundreds of studies have documented an association between depression in mothers and behavior problems in children. Theory and empirical findings suggest this association may be confounded by other factors, but little attention has been paid to this issue. We used propensity score methods in a sample of 731 low-income families assessed repeatedly from child age 2 through 14 years to produce a weighted sample of families that were similar at child age 3 years except for mothers' depression. Depressive symptomatology was measured via self-report rating scale. Mothers were categorized as having clinically-elevated versus non-clinically-elevated scores based on an established threshold. Mothers with elevated versus nonelevated scores were equated on 89 other relevant characteristics (e.g., SES, child behavior, marital conflict). We then compared the equated groups on mother, secondary caregiver, and teacher ratings of child externalizing and internalizing behavior from child ages 4 to 14 years. Prior to equating, the mean effect of exposure to clinically-elevated mothers' depression scores at child age 3 years was = 0.45 per mothers, = 0.26 per secondary caregivers, and d = 0.13 per teachers. After equating, the mean adjusted effect was = 0.07 per mothers, = 0.01 per secondary caregivers, and = 0.03 per teachers. Findings suggest that a substantial portion of the association between mothers' depression and later child behavior problems is accounted for by confounding variables rather than a causal effect of depressive symptoms per se. To fully understand why children of depressed mothers exhibit more behavior problems, a multicausal theory is needed that jointly considers the cluster of co-occurring clinical features that often accompany maternal depression. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
数以百计的研究记录了母亲抑郁与儿童行为问题之间的关联。理论和实证研究结果表明，这种关联可能受到其他因素的混淆，但很少有人关注这个问题。我们在一个从儿童 2 岁到 14 岁反复评估的 731 个低收入家庭样本中使用倾向评分方法，生成了一个权重样本，这些家庭在儿童 3 岁时除了母亲的抑郁之外，其他方面都相似。抑郁症状通过自我报告量表进行测量。母亲根据既定的阈值分为临床显著得分与非临床显著得分。在其他 89 个相关特征（如 SES、儿童行为、婚姻冲突）上，将得分较高的母亲与得分较低的母亲相匹配。然后，我们比较了匹配组中母亲、次要照顾者和教师在儿童 4 岁至 14 岁时对儿童内外向行为的评分。在匹配之前，暴露于临床显著母亲抑郁得分在儿童 3 岁时的平均效应为 0.45 个母亲，0.26 个次要照顾者，0.13 个教师。在匹配之后，平均调整效应为 0.07 个母亲，0.01 个次要照顾者，0.03 个教师。研究结果表明，母亲抑郁与儿童后期行为问题之间的大部分关联是由混杂变量引起的，而不是抑郁症状本身的因果效应。要充分理解为什么抑郁母亲的孩子表现出更多的行为问题，需要一种多因果理论，该理论需要共同考虑经常伴随母亲抑郁的一组共同出现的临床特征。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2021 APA，保留所有权利）。
