title: Current maternal depression moderates the relation between critical expressed emotion in mothers and depressive symptoms in their adolescent daughters.
abstract: Prior studies have examined critical expressed emotion (EE-Crit) in mothers in the intergenerational transmission of depression. However, the potential moderating effect of maternal depression diagnostic status in relation to EE-Crit and youth depressive symptoms has yet to be determined. A total of N=121 biological mother/daughter dyads that differed in maternal depression diagnostic status were recruited for the present study: (1) currently depressed mothers (current depression, n=29); (2) formerly depressed mothers (past depression, n=39); and (3) mothers free from any psychiatric history (healthy controls, n=53). Mothers were administered structured clinical interviews and completed self-report measures of EE-Crit and psychopathology, and daughters self-reported depressive symptoms. Results indicated no significant group differences in EE-Crit; however, current maternal depression status moderated EE-Crit such that the magnitude of the relation between EE-Crit and adolescent depressive symptoms was significantly greater in daughters of currently depressed mothers. These findings highlight the importance of considering current maternal depression, rather than a history of maternal depression, in relation to EE-Crit and adolescent depressive symptoms, providing impetus for future investigations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, United States.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mellick
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, United States.
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalpakci
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, United States. Electronic address: csharp2@uh.edu.
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sharp
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009679:Nuclear Family / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D057566:Self Report
keywords: Adolescence; Depressed; Disorder; Girls; Intergenerational; Major; Transmission