Current maternal depression associated with worsened children's social outcomes during middle childhood: Exploring the role of positive affect socialization

Background: Maternal depression negatively predicts aspects of the mother-child relationship and social functioning in offspring. This study evaluated interrelations between mothers' depression history and current severity with dynamic indices of positive affect socialization and indices of offspring' social outcomes. Methods: N = 66 mother-child dyads in which approximately 50 % of mothers had a history of maternal depression were recruited. Children were 6-8 years old and 47.7 % male. Dyads completed a positive interaction task, which was coded for mother and child positive affect. Mothers and children reported on peer functioning and social problems and children reported on the quality of their best friendships at 1-year follow-up. Results: Current level of maternal depression, but not depression history, was related to more social problems and lower best friend relationship quality. Indices of positive affect socialization were not related to history or current levels of maternal depression, or social outcomes, with the exception of maternal depression history predicting greater likelihood of mothers joining their children in expressing positive affect. Exploratory, supplementary analysis revealed that this may be due to treatment history among these mothers. Limitations: Conclusions should be tempered by the small sample size, which limited the types of analyses that were conducted. Conclusion: Results suggest that the effect of maternal depression on aspects of child social outcomes could be specific to current levels. Our data also did not support previously found associations between maternal depression and positive affect socialization. Results suggest positive implications for the effect of treatment for maternal depression for mother-child dynamics.

Automated summary

This study evaluates the relationship between maternal depression history and current severity with positive affect socialization and offspring's social outcomes. The results suggest that current level of maternal depression is associated with more social problems and lower quality of best friendships in children. However, positive affect socialization is not related to maternal depression history or current levels, except for a greater likelihood of mothers joining their children in expressing positive affect. Treatment history among these mothers may explain this finding.