ABSTRACT
Parents’ depressive symptoms have been shown to have a significant negative effect on adjustment for children and adolescents (for reviews, see Cummings & Davies, 1994; Goodman & Gotlib, 1999). Problem behaviours such as internalizing and externalizing were higher in children of depressed parents (e.g., mothers’ symptoms of depression were associated with adolescents’ externalizing behaviours; Kouros & Garber, 2010), and a recent three-year longitudinal study revealed that mothers’ depressive symptoms were associated with their elementary schoolchildren’s lower ability to regulate emotions
Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Dorothea E. Dette-Hagenmeyer, Ludwigsburg University of Education, Institute of Psychology and Sociology, Reuteallee 46; 71602, Ludwigsburg, Germany. E-mail: dette-hagenmeyer@ph-ludwigsburg.de
Vol. 11, No. 2, 196-210, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2013.848789
Dorothea E. Dette-Hagenmeyer and Barbara Reichle Institute of Psychology and Sociology, Ludwigsburg University of Education, Ludwigsburg, Germany
Parents’ depressive symptoms have been shown to have a significant negative effect on adjustment for children and adolescents (for reviews, see Cummings & Davies, 1994; Goodman & Gotlib, 1999). Problem behaviours such as internalizing and externalizing were higher in children of depressed parents (e.g., mothers’ symptoms of depression were associated with adolescents’ externalizing behaviours; Kouros & Garber, 2010), and a recent three-year longitudinal study revealed that mothers’ depressive symptoms were associated with their elementary schoolchildren’s lower ability to regulate emotions
Correspondence should be addressed to Dr Dorothea E. Dette-Hagenmeyer, Ludwigsburg University of Education, Institute of Psychology and Sociology, Reuteallee 46; 71602, Ludwigsburg, Germany. E-mail: dette-hagenmeyer@ph-ludwigsburg.de
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, 2014 Vol. 11, No. 2, 196-210, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2013.848789
(Blandon, Calkins, Keane, & O’Brien, 2008). Most studies have focused on mothers, and only a few have analyzed data from fathers. Some of these studies found similar results for fathers with a significant association between fathers’ depression and children’s adjustment (see Kane & Garber, 2004). Others, however, reported different results for fathers: For instance, fathers’ but not mothers’ depressive symptoms predicted children’s externalizing symptoms over time, whereas mothers’ but not fathers’ depressive symptoms predicted children’s internalizing symptoms over time (Cummings, Schermerhorn, Keller, & Davies, 2008). However, there are too few studies to draw conclusions about the role of parents’ gender in the link between parents’ depressive symptoms and children’s adjustment at this time.
