Maternal Depression and Preadolescent Symptoms: An Examination of Dyad-Level Moderators in an Economically Impoverished Sample

This cross-sectional study examined behavioral and physiological indicators of the parent- child relationship as moderators of the link between maternal depressive and child psychopathology symptoms. Ninety-seven mothers (M age = 35.38 years) and their 9- to 12-year-old children (M age = 10.32 years, 53.7% girls, 78.1% African American) from economically impoverished backgrounds participated. Mothers reported on their own depressive symptoms using the Beck Depression Inventory-2 (BDI-2) and their child's emotional and behavioral problems using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Physiological activity (i. e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia) of both mother and child was collected during a dyadic conflict discussion task, and interactions were coded independently for mother and child positivity, negativity, and engagement. Physiological synchrony was computed using multilevel modeling, and dyad-level behavioral indicators (i.e., dyadic positivity, negativity, and engagement) were created by averaging individual mother and child behavioral codes. Moderation analyses indicated that the link between mother and child symptoms was exacerbated for dyads who displayed low levels of positivity and low levels of engagement, as well as in the context of positive physiological synchrony. In contrast, high levels of positivity and engagement and negative physiological synchrony buffered the link between symptoms. Findings have implications for conceptual models of intergenerational risk for psychopathology and for clinical prevention and intervention efforts that target the parent- child relationship.