Patterns of Depressive Parenting: Why They Occur and Their Role in Early Developmental Risk

This study examined subgroups of depressed mothers who differ on their intrusive and withdrawn behavior. It explored the stability of these differences, why they occur, and their role in children's early developmental risk. With 6- to 24-month data from 1,364 dyads, latent class analysis identified 3 stable patterns of early parenting among mothers consistently above clinical thresholds on depressive symptoms (n = 159): 2 low-functioning patterns (high intrusive, high intrusive/high withdrawn) and 1 high-functioning pattern (low intrusive/low withdrawn). Low-functioning depressed mothers were no more depressed than high-functioning depressed mothers, but lacked personal resources and were in low-support, high-stress contexts. Differences in their children's development over the first 2 years appeared to depend primarily on demographic risk. By 36 months, however, stable differences in depressed mothers' patterns of intrusive and withdrawn parenting-independent of demographic risk-predicted cognitive and language development, the quality of the relationship with the mother (attachment, responsiveness to mothers), and socioemotional competence. Children of high-functioning depressed mothers were not significantly different from children of nondepressed mothers in cognitive and language development and in attachment and responsiveness to the mother, but displayed more behavior problems and less social competence. Findings reveal stable differences in parenting within a sample of depressed mothers, support a stress and coping perspective on why these differences occur, and demonstrate their potential role in determining the risk children of depressed mothers face over the first 3 years.