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Format:
Print
Author:
McKee, Laura Gale
Dept./Program:
Psychology
Year:
2008
Degree:
PhD
Abstract:
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disease-related disability (Murray & Lopez, 1997), with one in five people in the United States experiencing the disorder during their lifetime (Kessler et al., 1994). The debilitating effects of depression are not limited to the individuals diagnosed; children living with a depressed caregiver are also exposed to the symptoms of parental depression and are at risk for internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors (Downey & Coyne, 1990).
Parenting behavior is one hypothesized mechanism for the transmission of risk from parents with MDD to their children (see Lovejoy, Graczyk, O'Hare, & Neuman, 2000). Presently there is a need to examine specificity of parenting, or how particular parenting dimensions (e.g., warmth) relate to particular child outcomes (e.g., internalizing problems). More precisely, unique specificity (direct effects), focuses on whether a parenting variable retains a significant relation with a child outcome variable once indirect relations through other theoretically-relevant variables (i.e., other parenting, child outcome variables) are controlled. Differential effects focus on whether a parenting variable has a stronger relation with one of two child outcome variables. Interactional specificity examines whether one parenting variable is related to a child outcome variable across all levels of a second parenting variable or only at particular levels of that second variable.
The current study examined the relation between three parenting dimensions (i.e., warmth, deficient behavioral control and hostility) and two broadband indices of child psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing symptoms) among a sample of 97 depressed caregivers (84 mothers; M[subscript age] = 42.25 years, SD = 7.62) and 136 offspring (69 female; M[subscript age] = 11.46 years, SD = 1.94).
Parental warmth, but not deficient behavioral control or hostility, evidenced a unique relation with both child internalizing (B=.14, p<.05) and externalizing (B=-.23, p<.05) symptoms. Furthermore, tests of differential specificity suggested that the negative relation between parental warmth and externalizing symptoms and the positive relation between warmth and internalizing symptoms was significantly different (B=.27, p<01). Support for interactional specificity was not found. Clinical implications are highlighted, and future research directions are discussed.