Maternal Depression and Child Psychopathology: A Meta-Analytic Review

• Published in: Clinical child and family psychology review Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 1 - 27
• Main Authors: Goodman, Sherryl H, Rouse, Matthew H, Connell, Arin M, Broth, Michelle Robbins, Hall, Christine M, Heyward, Devin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Boston : Springer US 01.03.2011; Springer US; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Affect; Affective Behavior; Age Factors; At Risk Persons; Behavior Disorders; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child Behavior; Child Development; Child of Impaired Parents - psychology; Children; Children & youth; Correlation; depression; Depression (Psychology); Depressive Disorder - psychology; Effect Size; Emotional Development; Externalizing; Female; Humans; Internalizing; Intervention; Male; Mental depression; Meta Analysis; Moderators; Mother-Child Relations; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Negative affect or behavior; Organizations (Groups); Personality Problems; Positive affect or behavior; Prevention; Psychological Patterns; Psychology; Psychology, Child; Psychopathology; Research Design; Resistance (Psychology); Role; Sampling; Social Sciences; Systematic review; Young Adult; Young Children; Externalizing; Negative affect or behavior; Depression; Children; Internalizing; Psychopathology; Positive affect or behavior; Mothers; Moderators; Meta-analysis
• ISSN: 1096-4037; 1573-2827
• DOI: 10.1007/s10567-010-0080-1

Although the association between maternal depression and adverse child outcomes is well established, the strength of the association, the breadth or specificity of the outcomes, and the role of moderators are not known. This information is essential to inform not only models of risk but also the design of preventive interventions by helping to identify subgroups at greater risk than others and to elucidate potential mechanisms as targets of interventions. A meta-analysis of 193 studies was conducted to examine the strength of the association between mothers' depression and children's behavioral problems or emotional functioning. Maternal depression was significantly related to higher levels of internalizing, externalizing, and general psychopathology and negative affect/behavior and to lower levels of positive affect/behavior, with all associations small in magnitude. These associations were significantly moderated by theoretically and methodologically relevant variables, with patterns of moderation found to vary somewhat with each child outcome. Results are interpreted in terms of implications for theoretical models that move beyond main effects models in order to more accurately identify which children of depressed mothers are more or less at risk for specific outcomes.