Department of Medicine, Foundations of Clinical Medicine, New York Medical College, 7 Dana Road, Valhalla, New York 10595, USA; Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Psychology, Fielding Graduate University, 2020 De La Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105, USA.
Private Practice and Independent Researcher, CA, USA.
J Affect Disord. 2022 May 1;304:142-149. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.01.110. Epub 2022 Feb 12.
Young children living with a depressed parent are at risk for developing social, behavioral, and emotional problems. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an increase in subclinical caregiver depression scores was associated with increases in internalizing and externalizing behavior in children who are at high risk for maltreatment.
The 1019 U.S.-based dyads consisted of predominantly single (45.53%) and Black/African American (53.29%) caregivers and high-risk 4-year-olds from the LONGSCAN study. Multivariate regression analyzes were used to evaluate the relationship between caregiver Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scores, above and below the at-risk for depression CES-D score, and preschooler internalizing, externalizing, and total problem behaviors, measured with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).
Caregiver CES-D score increases, above and below the at-risk for depression score, were significantly associated (p < 0.05) with increased child internalizing, externalizing, and total problem behaviors. After adjusting for covariates, among dyads whose caregivers had subclinical (CES-D < 16) scores, a one-unit score increase was significantly associated with a 0.43 increase (p = 0.00) in children's CBCL internalizing score.
These findings are restricted to preschool children who are at risk for maltreatment, limiting generalizability.
Low and moderate levels of caregiver depressive symptomatology were associated with a negative influence on preschoolers' adjustment. Practitioners should consider that the link between caregiver depression and child wellbeing may lie on a continuum. With consideration of the full continuum of symptoms, early intervention and anticipatory guidance may decrease the impact of depression on the caregiver, child, and system.
与抑郁父母一起生活的幼儿有出现社交、行为和情绪问题的风险。本研究的目的是评估亚临床照顾者抑郁评分的增加是否与处于虐待高风险的儿童的内化和外化行为的增加有关。
1019 对美国家长-儿童对中，照顾者主要为单身（45.53%）和黑/非裔美国人（53.29%），儿童为高风险 4 岁儿童，来自 LONGSCAN 研究。多变量回归分析用于评估照顾者中心流行病学研究抑郁量表（CES-D）评分、高于和低于抑郁 CES-D 评分与幼儿内化、外化和总问题行为之间的关系，使用儿童行为检查表（CBCL）进行测量。
照顾者 CES-D 评分的增加，高于和低于抑郁风险评分，与儿童内化、外化和总问题行为的增加显著相关（p<0.05）。在调整了协变量后，在照顾者有亚临床（CES-D<16）评分的对中，评分增加一个单位与儿童 CBCL 内化评分增加 0.43 显著相关（p=0.00）。
这些发现仅限于处于虐待风险的学龄前儿童，限制了普遍性。
低水平和中等水平的照顾者抑郁症状与对学龄前儿童适应能力的负面影响有关。从业者应考虑到照顾者抑郁和儿童幸福感之间的联系可能存在于一个连续体上。考虑到症状的整个连续体，早期干预和预期指导可能会降低抑郁对照顾者、儿童和系统的影响。
