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Gender Differences in the Association between Maternal Depressed Mood and Child Depressive Phenomena from Grade 3 through Grade 10

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Abstract

This study reports on relationships among gender, maternal depressed mood, and children’s trajectories of depressive phenomena across middle childhood and early adolescence. It tested the hypothesis that, compared to boys, girls become increasingly vulnerable to maternal depression as they enter adolescence. The study sample consisted of 834 families from 10 Pacific Northwest schools that participated in the Raising Healthy Children project. Maternal depressed mood and children’s depressive phenomena were assessed annually during an 8-year period that spanned Grade 3 through Grade 10 for the children. Mean scores for girls’ depressive phenomena increased relative to those for boys as children matured. Maternal depressed mood was significantly and positively associated with children’s level of depressive phenomena. An interaction effect of gender and maternal depressed mood on acceleration in children’s depressive phenomena indicated that girls’ trajectories of depressive phenomena were sustained in the presence of maternal depression while those of boys declined in the presence of maternal depression.

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Notes

  1. Depression was not a primary target variable of the intervention, and there were no level differences, by experimental condition, in child depression in 3rd through 10th grades. All models used in the present analyses were run separately by experimental condition. Results were similar in terms of direction and magnitude of associations across conditions and supported pooling participants from both conditions in our analyses.

  2. Due to the structure of our data and the extent of missing data on maternal depression across time points and on child depression at the first and last time points, secondary analyses were run using imputation of 10 complete data sets augmented with random error. The results were averaged and standard errors were estimated that took into account both within- and between-imputation variability. In all cases, nonimputed results were similar to those based on multiple imputation in terms of the direction and significance levels of tested fixed effects. Thus, results presented here are based on nonimputed data.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by research grant # RO1 DA08093 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The authors gratefully acknowledge Edmonds School District #15 for their support and cooperation in the Raising Healthy Children Program. We are grateful to W. Alex Mason for his comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript and to Aline Sayers for her statistical guidance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Development Research Group, School of Social Work, University of Washington, 9725 3rd Ave. NE, Suite 401, Seattle, WA, 98115, USA

    Rebecca C. Cortes, Charles B. Fleming, Richard F. Catalano & Eric C. Brown

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  1. Rebecca C. Cortes
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  4. Eric C. Brown
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Correspondence to Rebecca C. Cortes.

Additional information

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Society for Research on Adolescence annual meeting, March 11–14, 2004 in Baltimore, MD.

investigator with the Raising Healthy Children project, Social Development Research Group, School of Social Work, University of Washington, on a minority supplement awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Her research interests include the social-emotional development of young children and mental health outcomes in children and adolescents.

research analyst for the Raising Healthy Children project, Social Development Research Group, School of Social Work, University of Washington. Mr. Fleming’s interests include prevention science and the etiology of adolescent problem behavior.

Professor and the Director of the Social Development Research Group, School of Social Work, University of Washington. Dr. Catalano is the principal investigator on a number of federal grants, which include family, school, and community-based prevention approaches to reduce risk while enhancing the protective factors of bonding and promotion of healthy beliefs and clear standards.

research analyst with the Social Development Research Group, School of Social Work, University of Washington. Dr. Brown is currently investigating the efficacy of the Raising Healthy Children intervention. His research interest is in the development of longitudinal methods as they apply to adolescent substance use, mental health, and well-being.

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Cortes, R.C., Fleming, C.B., Catalano, R.F. et al. Gender Differences in the Association between Maternal Depressed Mood and Child Depressive Phenomena from Grade 3 through Grade 10. J Youth Adolescence 35, 810–821 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9083-0

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