title: Self-cognitions, stressful events, and the prediction of depression in children of depressed mothers.
abstract: In a preliminary effort to integrate cognitive, life stress, and interpersonal approaches to vulnerability to depression, children's cognitions about themselves, their stressful life events, and the interaction of self-cognitions and life events were tested as predictors of depression. Children of normal, medically ill, and bipolar and unipolar depressed mothers were assessed initially and 6 months later for diagnostic status using the Kiddie-SADS interview. As predicted, Piers-Harris self-concept scores and interview-assessed children's stressful life events significantly predicted changes in depression status over the 6-month follow-up. Stressors and the interaction of stressors and self-concept also predicted changes in diagnosis of nonaffective disorders. A self-schema measure of accessibility of negative self-cognitions, known to be mood-dependent, failed to add to the prediction of depression severity. The results are consistent with a model of depression vulnerability that emphasizes cognition about self-worth and self-efficacy as mediators of the impact of stressful events, and we speculate that such self-schemas are acquired in part in the context of parent-child relationships. Recommendations are given for further studies of the acquisition and the mechanisms of self-schemas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles 90024.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hammen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000235:genetics; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012307:Risk Factors; D012649:Self Concept