Although new mothers are at risk of heightened vulnerability for depressive symptoms, there is limited understanding regarding changes in maternal depressive symptoms over the course of the postpartum and early childhood of their child’s life among rural, low-income mothers from diverse racial backgrounds. This study examined distinct trajectories of depressive symptoms among rural low-income mothers during the first five years of their child’s life, at 6, 15, 24, and 58 months, using data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,292). Latent class growth analysis identified four distinct trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms, including Low-decreasing (50%; n = 622), Low-increasing (26%; n = 324), Moderate-decreasing (13%; n = 156), and Moderate-increasing (11%; n = 131) trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression demonstrated that higher perceived financial strain and intimate partner violence, and lower social support predicted higher-risk trajectories (Low-increasing, Moderate-decreasing, and Moderate-increasing) relative to the Low-decreasing trajectory. Compared to the Low-decreasing trajectory, lower neighborhood safety/quietness predicted to the Low-increasing trajectory. Moreover, lower social support predicted the Moderate-increasing trajectory, the highest-risk trajectory, compared to those in Moderate-decreasing. The current analyses underscore the heterogeneity on patterns of depressive symptoms among rural, low-income mothers, and that the role of both proximal and broader contexts contributing to distinct trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms over early childhood.

Maternal depressive symptoms (MDS) in the postnatal period may impact children’s later development through poorer quality parent-child interactions. The current study tested a specific pathway from MDS (child age 9 months) to child receptive vocabulary (4 ½ years) through both self-reported and observed parent-child verbal interactions (at both 2 and 4 ½ years). Participants (n = 4,432) were part of a large, diverse, contemporary pre-birth national cohort study: Growing Up in New Zealand. Results indicated a direct association between greater MDS at 9 months and poorer receptive vocabulary at age 4 ½ years. There was support for an indirect pathway through self-reported parent-child verbal interactions at 2 years and through observed parent-child verbal interactions at 4 ½ years. A moderated mediation effect was also found: the indirect effect of MDS on child vocabulary through observed verbal interaction was supported for families living in areas of greater socioeconomic deprivation. Overall, findings support the potential role of parent-child verbal interactions as a mechanism for the influence of MDS on later child language development. This pathway may be particularly important for families experiencing socioeconomic adversity, suggesting that effective and appropriate supportive parenting interventions be preferentially targeted to reduce inequities in child language outcomes.

Maternal depressive symptoms are a crucial risk factor for children’s internalizing problems, though positive mother–child relationships may buffer this risk transmission. Mother–child physiological coregulation (e.g., synchrony) has emerged as a potentially important mechanism of developmental psychopathology and may play a role in the transmission of internalizing symptoms. In this two-wave longitudinal study, we examined whether and how mother–infant physiological synchrony (of respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) moderated the association between maternal postnatal depressive symptoms and children’s internalizing problems in a rural, low-SES community sample (N = 166 dyads). At 6 months, mother–infant RSA synchrony and infant negative affect were assessed during free play. Mother reported their depressive symptoms at 6 months and children’s internalizing problems at 24 months. Multilevel structural equation models indicated that mother–infant dyads demonstrated significant and positive RSA synchrony on average and RSA synchrony significantly moderated the association between maternal depressive symptoms and children’s internalizing problems even after controlling for infant negative affect. Greater maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher child internalizing problems when RSA synchrony was lower but not when it was higher. This finding suggests that mother–infant RSA synchrony may operate as a resilience factor for the intergenerational transmission of internalizing symptoms in community samples.

Maternal depressive symptoms (MDS) have been linked to both child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Theory suggests that child attachment security may be a protective factor against the negative effects of MDS. This study examined child attachment security as a buffer of the link between MDS and child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems at two time points in a predominantly African American sample. Participants included mothers (N = 164; M age = 29.68 years; 76% African American) and their preschool-aged children (60% girls; M age = 44.67 months) recruited from four Head Start centers in low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland. MDS were concurrently associated with child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems at both time points. No significant main effects of child attachment security on behavior problems emerged; however, child attachment moderated the association between MDS and child internalizing behavior problems at Time 2, such that MDS predicted greater child internalizing problems when attachment security was low, and the effect was attenuated when attachment security was high. No interaction emerged for child externalizing problems. Findings suggest that secure attachment in early childhood can serve as a protective factor in the context of parental risk. We discuss implications for intervention and the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology.

We examined whether adolescents’ loneliness and social withdrawal mediated the association between maternal depressive symptoms and adolescent suicidality. Secondary analyses on the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development data were conducted (n = 1,623). Each mother completed the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (at child ages 5 months, 1.5, 3.5, 5, and 7 years). Adolescent's social withdrawal (adolescent, father, and teacher reported at 10, 12, and 13 years) and loneliness (adolescent reported at 10, 12, and 13 years), were assessed using items from the Social Behavior Questionnaire and the Loneliness and Social Satisfaction Questionnaire, respectively. Adolescents completed self-reports to assess suicidal thoughts and attempts at 13, 15, 17, and 20 years. Children of mothers with higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms had an increased risk for suicidality (OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.03–1.28). Loneliness explained 16% of the total effect of maternal depressive symptoms on adolescent suicidality (indirect effect OR = 1.02, 95% CI: 1.00–1.04). There was no indirect effect of maternal depressive symptoms on adolescent suicidal outcomes via social withdrawal (indirect effect OR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.99–1.02). Interventions that target loneliness may be beneficial for decreasing the risk for suicidality among adolescents of mothers with depressive symptoms.

Among children exposed to elevated maternal depression symptoms (MDS), recent studies have demonstrated reduced internalizing and externalizing problems for those who have attended formal childcare (i.e., center-based, family-based childcare). However, these studies did not consider whether childcare attendance is associated with benefits for the child only or also with reduced MDS. Using a four-wave longitudinal cross-lagged model, we evaluated whether formal childcare attendance was associated with MDS or child behavior problems and whether it moderated longitudinal associations between MDS and child behavior problems and between child behavior problems and MDS. The sample was drawn from a population-based cohort study and consisted of 908 biologically related mother–child dyads, followed from 5 months to 5 years. Attending formal childcare was not associated with MDS or child behavior problems but moderated the association between MDS at 3.5 years and child internalizing and externalizing problems at 5 years as well as between girls’ externalizing problems at 3.5 years and MDS at 5 years. No other moderation of formal childcare was found. Findings suggest that attending formal childcare reduces the risks of behavior problems in the context of MDS but also the risk of MDS in the context of girls’ externalizing problems.

A large and growing body of research suggests that maternal depressive symptoms and child externalizing behaviors are strongly associated. Theoretical arguments supported by these findings led to the question of whether maternal depressive symptoms are transactionally associated with child externalizing behaviors. Using 5-year nationally representative longitudinal data from Turkey (N = 1,052), we estimated a transactional bivariate autoregressive latent trajectory model addressing this question. This model disaggregated the association of the two processes into two components: (a) the association of the interindividual differences in the trajectories; and (b) the intradyad association of the changes in maternal depressive symptoms with the changes in child externalizing behaviors. Although maternal depressive symptoms were robustly associated with child externalizing behaviors at age 3, the transactional associations of the two processes were small prior to age 5 and absent at ages 5 to 7. Furthermore, maternal harsh parenting did not have a mediating role in the limited transactional association of maternal depressive symptoms with child externalizing behaviors.