title: Transgenerational effects of maternal depression on affect recognition in children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The association between maternal depression and adverse emotional and behavioral outcomes in children is well established. One associated factor might be altered affect recognition which may be transmitted transgenerationally. Individuals with history of depression show biased recognition of sadness. Our aim was to investigate parallels in maternal and children's affect recognition with remitted depressed mothers.
  
  
  METHODS
  60 Mother-child dyads completed an affect recognition morphing task. We examined two groups of remitted depressed mothers, with and without history of physical or sexual abuse, and a group of healthy mothers without history of physical or sexual abuse. Children were between 5 and 12 years old.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Across groups, mothers identified happy faces fastest. Mothers with remitted depression showed a higher accuracy and response bias for sadness. We found corresponding results in their children. Maternal and children's bias and accuracy for sadness were positively correlated. Effects of remitted depression were found independent of maternal history of physical or sexual abuse.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our sample size was relatively small and further longitudinal research is needed to investigate how maternal and children's affect recognition are associated with behavioral and emotional outcomes in the long term.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data suggest a negative processing bias in mothers with remitted depression which might represent both the perpetuation of and vulnerability to depression. Children of remitted depressed mothers appear to be exposed to this processing bias outside acute depressive episodes. This may promote the development of a corresponding processing bias in the children and could make children of depressed mothers more vulnerable to depressive disorders themselves.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Campus Mitte, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: dorothea.kluczniok@charite.de.
authors.forename: Dorothea
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kluczniok
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Campus Mitte, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hindi Attar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fydrich
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Charité Campus Virchow, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fuehrer
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Charité Campus Virchow, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jaite
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Gregor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Domes
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Charité Campus Virchow, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Sibylle
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Winter
authors.affiliation: Department for General Psychiatry, Center of Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabine C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Herpertz
authors.affiliation: Section for Disorders of Personality Development, Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Centre of Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Romuald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brunner
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Charité Campus Virchow, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boedeker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Campus Mitte, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bermpohl
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Affect recognition; Maternal depression; Morphing task; Transgenerational transmission