title: Maternal depression: effects on social cognition and behavior in parent-child interactions.
abstract: The social interactions of depressed and nondepressed mothers and their preschool-age children were observed and mothers' perceptions of child behavior assessed. Depressed mothers, as a group, exhibited more negative behavior than controls; however, no differences were found for maternal positive behavior or contingent responding. There was a high degree of reciprocity between child and mother behavior in both groups and there was a trend for children of the depressed mothers to be more negative than the control children. The results with cognitive measures were consistent with depressive realism in perception of social interactions: Depressed mothers recalled more negative child behavior than nondepressed mothers; however, these perceptions paralleled the observed interactions. Overall, the results suggest that maternal depression is associated with negative parent-child interactions and more negative, albeit fairly accurate, perceptions of child behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Science, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana 47306.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lovejoy
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010553:Personality Development; D011340:Problem Solving; D012931:Social Environment; D012951:Socialization