Ji Huayu, Wang Yiji
Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
Key Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Science of Anhui Province on Adolescent Mental Health and Crisis Intelligence Intervention, Hefei Normal University, Hefei, China.
J Res Adolesc. 2025 Mar;35(1):e13042. doi: 10.1111/jora.13042. Epub 2024 Dec 1.
Despite the well-established link between mothers' depressive symptoms and youth behavioral problems, it remains unclear whether the mechanism by which mothers' depressive symptoms promote behavioral problems may also be related to individual differences in this relation. Following the three-variable system integrating mediation and moderation, this study used an integrative model to simultaneously examine the mediating and moderating role of emotional reactivity in the longitudinal associations between maternal depressive symptoms and internalizing and externalizing problems in youth. Participants were 1060 youth and their mothers from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (49.7% boys, 81.6% white). Mothers reported their own depressive symptoms at nine waves from infancy through the fifth grade. They also rated adolescents' emotional reactivity in the fifth grade and behavioral problems in the fifth and sixth grades. The results showed that emotional reactivity mediated the longitudinal relations between maternal depressive symptoms and internalizing and externalizing problems in youth. The results also supported the moderation of emotional reactivity. That is, mothers' depressive symptoms were associated with high levels of internalizing and externalizing problems, particularly among youth who were high in emotional reactivity. The findings highlight the dual role of emotional reactivity to better understand the associations between mothers' depressive symptoms and offspring behavioral problems, and emphasize the need to target emotional reactivity to alleviate the adverse impacts of maternal depressive symptoms on behavioral adjustment in early adolescence.
尽管母亲的抑郁症状与青少年行为问题之间的联系已得到充分证实，但母亲的抑郁症状促使行为问题产生的机制是否也与这种关系中的个体差异有关，仍不清楚。遵循整合中介和调节作用的三变量系统，本研究使用一个整合模型，同时检验情绪反应性在母亲抑郁症状与青少年内化和外化问题的纵向关联中的中介和调节作用。参与者是来自美国国立儿童健康与人类发展研究所早期儿童保育与青少年发展研究的1060名青少年及其母亲（男孩占49.7%，白人占81.6%）。母亲们在从婴儿期到五年级的九个时间点报告了自己的抑郁症状。她们还对青少年在五年级时的情绪反应性以及在五年级和六年级时的行为问题进行了评分。结果表明，情绪反应性介导了母亲抑郁症状与青少年内化和外化问题之间的纵向关系。结果还支持情绪反应性的调节作用。也就是说，母亲的抑郁症状与高水平的内化和外化问题相关，尤其是在情绪反应性高的青少年中。这些发现凸显了情绪反应性在更好理解母亲抑郁症状与后代行为问题之间关联方面的双重作用，并强调有必要针对情绪反应性来减轻母亲抑郁症状对青少年早期行为调整的不利影响。
