TY - JOUR
T1 - Prospective Relations between Parents’ Depressive Symptoms and Children’s Attributional Style
AU - Sutherland, Susanna
AU - Brunwasser, Steven M.
AU - Nestor, Bridget A.
AU - McCauley, Elizabeth
AU - Diamond, Guy
AU - Schloredt, Kelly
AU - Garber, Judy
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health grants (R01MH57822, R01MH57834, R01MH057977) and training grant (T32 MH018921). We thank all those who contributed to completion of this project, including Steven Hollon, Ph.D.; Robert DeRubeis, Ph.D.; Richard Shelton, Ph.D.; Jay Amsterdam, Ph.D.; Sona Dimidjian, Ph.D.; Margaret Lovett, M.S.; Cynthia Flynn, Ph.D.; Russell Hanford, Ph.D.; Virginia Burks, Ph.D.; and Tory Creed, Ph.D.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Copyright © Society of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - 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 (M age = 42.19, SD = 6.82; 76% female) and one child (M age = 12.53, SD = 2.33; 53% female) per family. Parents either were diagnosed with a current major depressive disorder (n= 129; 72.9% female) or were lifetime-free of mood disorders (n= 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: χ2(30) = 35.22, p = .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 and teach children strategies for examining the accuracy of their beliefs regarding the causes of life events.
AB - 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 (M age = 42.19, SD = 6.82; 76% female) and one child (M age = 12.53, SD = 2.33; 53% female) per family. Parents either were diagnosed with a current major depressive disorder (n= 129; 72.9% female) or were lifetime-free of mood disorders (n= 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: χ2(30) = 35.22, p = .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 and teach children strategies for examining the accuracy of their beliefs regarding the causes of life events.
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U2 - 10.1080/15374416.2019.1567346
DO - 10.1080/15374416.2019.1567346
M3 - Article
C2 - 30908080
AN - SCOPUS:85063517155
SN - 1537-4416
VL - 50
SP - 77
EP - 87
JO - Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
JF - Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
IS - 1
ER -