Postnatal depression in Mexican American fathers: demographic, cultural, and familial predictors

BACKGROUND

Although maternal postpartum depression (PPD) is a well-documented phenomenon that has been the focus of a large body of literature, much less is known about the prevalence and predictors of depressive symptoms among fathers following the birth of a child. Particularly scarce is research with Mexican American men, an understudied population at high risk given limited socioeconomic resources and elevated rates of maternal PPD.

METHODS

The current study used descriptive and path analyses to examine the prevalence and predictors of PPD in 92 Mexican American fathers (M age=31.3 years).

RESULTS

At both 15 and 21 postpartum week assessments, 9% of fathers met criteria for PPD. Path analyses suggested that unemployment status, fewer biological children, poor marital relationship quality, and lower orientation to Anglo culture predicted higher 15 week paternal PPD symptoms, which was associated with greater paternal depressive symptoms at 21 weeks. Predictive paths from symptoms of maternal to paternal PPD were not significant.

LIMITATIONS

Lack of generalizability to other ethnic groups, sampling of primarily resident fathers, and the absence of historical assessments of depression are limitations of the current study.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings support the importance of PPD screenings among Mexican American fathers and suggest certain demographic, familial, and cultural factors may render men particularly vulnerable for maladjustment during the early infancy period.

Prenatal stress, partner support, and infant cortisol reactivity in low-income Mexican American families

Maternal exposure to significant prenatal stress can negatively affect infant neurobiological development and increase the risk for developmental and health disturbances. These effects may be pronounced in low SES and ethnic minority families. We explored prenatal partner support as a buffer of the impact of prenatal stress on cortisol reactivity of infants born to low-income Mexican American women. Women (N=220; age 18-42; 84% Spanish-speaking; 89% foreign born; modal family income $10,000-$15,000) reported on economic stress and satisfaction with spousal/partner support during the prenatal period (26-38 weeks gestation), and infant salivary cortisol reactivity to mildly challenging mother-infant interaction tasks was assessed at women's homes at six weeks postpartum. Multilevel models estimated the interactive effect of prenatal stress and partner support on cortisol reactivity, controlling for covariates and potential confounds. Infants born to mothers who reported high prenatal stress and low partner support exhibited higher cortisol reactivity relative to those whose mothers reported high support or low stress. The effects did not appear to operate through birth outcomes. For low-income Mexican American women, partner support may buffer the impact of prenatal stress on infant cortisol reactivity, potentially promoting more adaptive infant health and development.

Reciprocity among maternal distress, child behavior, and parenting: transactional processes and early childhood risk

Transactional theories support that parent-child processes are best studied in conjunction with one another, addressing their reciprocal influence and change across time. This study tested a longitudinal, autoregressive model exploring bidirectional relations among maternal symptomatology, child internalizing/externalizing symptoms, and maternal sensitivity during the preschool period (child ages 3 to 5 years), comparing relations among families of typically developing children and children with developmental risk. This study included 250 families, 110 of which had a child with early developmental delay. Analyses utilized data from maternal report, father report, and observational methods. The results indicated significant stability in maternal symptomatology, child internalizing/externalizing symptoms, and maternal sensitivity over time. Support for bidirectional effects between maternal symptomatology and child internalizing symptoms was found specifically for mothers of children with developmental risk. Maternal symptomatology was found to mediate the influence of child internalizing and externalizing symptoms on maternal sensitivity. The findings underscore critical transactional processes within families of children with early developmental risk that connect increased maternal symptomatology to emerging child internalizing symptoms during the preschool period.

Determinants of Change in Maternal Sensitivity: Contributions of Context, Temperament, and Developmental Risk

OBJECTIVE

Maternal sensitivity is a fundamental parenting construct and a determinant of positive child outcomes and healthy parent-child relationships. Few longitudinal studies have investigated determinants of sensitive parenting, particularly in a population of children at risk for developmental delay.

DESIGN

This study modeled trajectories of maternal sensitivity observed in two independent parenting contexts at child ages 3-, 4-, and 5-years. The sample included N = 247 mother-child dyads, with n = 110 children classified as at risk for developmental delays. Predictors included maternal distress, child anger proneness, and developmental risk status.

RESULTS

Maternal sensitivity changed during more demanding parenting tasks over the 3-year period but not during a low-demand task. Mothers of children with developmental risk, relative to mothers of typically developing children, and mothers of boys relative to mothers of girls, showed less sensitivity during more demanding parenting tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

Early developmental risk and child gender contribute to the nature of maternal sensitivity over time, but their contributions depend on the situational demands of the interaction. This contextualized view of sensitivity provides further evidence in support of parenting as a dynamic developmental process.

Activative Fathering Predicts Later Children's Behaviour Dysregulation and Sociability

This study examined activative fathering observed during father-child interactions in the family home, focusing on the relation between activative fathering at child age 4 and children's behaviour dysregulation and sociability at child age 5. One hundred twenty-seven families participated in the study. Activative fathering was associated with later lower child dysregulation during a problem solving task, higher dysregulation during a wait task, and higher sociability in the home. Contrary to expectations, paternal control did not moderate these relations. Results are discussed in relation to father-child activation relationship theory.

The family model stress and maternal psychological symptoms: mediated pathways from economic hardship to parenting

Although much of the extant research on low-income families has targeted parental depression as the predominant psychological response to economic hardship, the current study examined a range of maternal psychological symptoms that may mediate the relations between early economic pressure and later parenting behaviors. A family stress model was examined using data from 1,142 mothers living in 2 areas of high rural poverty, focusing on the infancy through toddlerhood period. Maternal questionnaires and observations of mother-child interactions were collected across 4 time points (6, 15, 24, and 36 months). Results from structural equation analyses indicated that early economic pressure was significantly related to a variety of symptoms (depression, hostility, anxiety, and somatization), but only depression and somatization were significantly related to decreased levels of sensitive, supportive parenting behaviors. In contrast, anxiety was positively associated with sensitive parenting. Depression and anxiety were both found to mediate the relations between economic pressure and sensitive parenting behaviors. Results further suggest that mothers did not experience change in objective economic hardship over time but did experience a small decrease in economic pressure. Discussion centers on the apparent indirect influence of early economic hardship on later psychological symptoms and parenting behaviors, as well as detailing the need for broader and more complex perspectives on maternal psychological responses that arise as a result of economic disadvantage.

Mother-Child Affect and Emotion Socialization Processes Across the Late Preschool Period: Predictions of Emerging Behavior Problems

The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal relations between maternal negative affective behavior and child negative emotional expression in preschool age children with (n = 96) or without (n = 126) an early developmental risk, as well as the predictions of later behavior problems. Maternal negative affective behavior, child externalizing emotional expression, and child internalizing emotional expression were observed during a number of lab tasks at child ages 4 and 5, and child externalizing and internalizing behavior problems were assessed via maternal questionnaire at age 6. Path analyses using structural equation modeling were utilized to test the relations among the variables at ages 4, 5, and 6. A parent-driven model of emotion socialization emerged, wherein stronger relations were found among maternal negative affect and child externalizing emotions and behaviors than among maternal negative affect and child internalizing emotions and behaviors. Early child risk did not appear to alter the overall emotion socialization process, although higher levels of maternal and child negativity were observed for the children with a developmental risk. Results underscore the complexity of emotion socialization processes throughout the preschool period.

Developmental risk and young children's regulatory strategies: predicting behavior problems at age five

Children with early developmental delays are at heightened risk for behavior problems and comorbid psychopathology. This study examined the trajectories of regulatory capabilities and their potentially mediating role in the development of behavior problems for children with and without early developmental delays. A sample of 231 children comprised of 137 typically developing children and 94 children with developmental delays were examined during mildly frustrating laboratory tasks across the preschool period (ages 3-5). Results indicated that children with delays had greater use of maladaptive strategies (distraction, distress venting) and lower use of adaptive strategies (constructive coping) than typically developing children. For both groups, strategies had similar rates of growth across time; maladaptive strategies decreased and adaptive strategies increased. The intercept of strategy use, but not the slope, was found to mediate the relation between developmental risk and externalizing behaviors. Findings support that dysregulation, rather than the developmental risk, may be responsible for the high levels of comorbid psychopathology.

Preschool Children with and without Developmental Delay: Risk, Parenting, and Child Demandingess

Although past literature has established relations between early child risk factors, negative parenting, and problematic child behavior, the nature of these interrelations and pathways of influence over time remains largely unknown, especially in children with developmental delays or disabilities. In the current study data were drawn from the longitudinal Collaborative Family Study and included a sample of 260 families with preschool children with and without developmental delays. Child-related risk was assessed at child age 36 months, maternal intrusiveness and negative affect at 48 months, and child demandingness at 60 months. Results indicated significant relations between early risk, negative parenting, and subsequent child demandingness. Sickliness as an infant was the most salient predictive risk factor of later child demandingness. Developmental delay was the most significant predictor of subsequent negative parenting. Results are discussed as being more indicative of additive rather than mediational processes given that early child risk and negative maternal parenting both contributed uniquely to the subsequent development of child demandingness.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder among children with and without intellectual disability: an examination across time

BACKGROUND

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities are at heightened risk for mental disorders, and disruptive behaviour disorders appear to be the most prevalent. The current study is a longitudinal examination of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among children with and without intellectual disability (ID) across ages 5 to 8.

METHOD

We assessed 228 5-year-old children, 87 with ID and 141 with typical development (TD), for clinical diagnoses using a structured interview. These interviews were conducted with mothers annually from child age 5 to 8.

RESULTS

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was over 3 times as prevalent in the ID group as in the TD group across ages 5, 6, 7 and 8. The diagnosis of ADHD tended to emerge earlier and was more stable in the ID group; however, the total number and relative frequency of ADHD symptoms endorsed appeared to be similar within the two groups across time. With respect to the developmental course, the trajectories of ADHD inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptoms over time were similar in the two groups.

DISCUSSION

Children with ID appear to be at heightened risk for ADHD and they may experience a longer and more persistent course of the disorder. These findings highlight the need for making interventions available for early treatment of this condition in children with ID.

Developmental changes in anger expression and attention focus: learning to wait

Being able to wait is an essential part of self-regulation. In the present study, the authors examined the developmental course of changes in the latency to and duration of target-waiting behaviors by following 65 boys and 55 girls from rural and semirural economically strained homes from ages 18 months to 48 months. Age-related changes in latency to and duration of children's anger expressions and attention focus (e.g., self-initiated distraction) during an 8-min wait for a gift were found. On average, at 18 and 24 months of age, children were quick to react angrily and slower to shift attention away from the desired object than they were at later ages. Over time, children were quicker to distract themselves. By 36 months, distractions occurred before children expressed anger, and anger expressions were briefer. At 48 months, children typically made a quick bid to their mothers about having to wait before distracting themselves; on average, they did not appear angry until the latter half of the wait. Unexpectedly, children bid to their mothers as much at age 48 months as they had at 18 months; however, bids became less angry as children got older. Developmental changes in distraction and bidding predicted age-related changes in the latency to anger. Findings are discussed in terms of the neurocognitive control of attention around age 30 months, the limitations of children's self-regulatory efforts at age 48 months, and the importance of fostering children's ability to forestall, as well as modulate, anger.

Emotion Socialization by Mothers and Fathers: Coherence among Behaviors and Associations with Parent Attitudes and Children's Social Competence

This study examined interrelations among different types of parental emotion socialization behaviors in 88 mothers and 76 fathers (co-residing with participating mothers) of 8-year-old children. Parents completed questionnaires assessing emotion socialization behaviors, emotion-related attitudes, and their children's social functioning. An observed parent-child emotion discourse task and a child social-problem solving interview were also performed. Parent gender differences and concordance within couples in emotion socialization behaviors were identified for some but not all behaviors. Fathers' reactions to child emotion, family expressiveness, and fathers' emotion coaching during discussion cohered, and a model was supported in which the commonality among these behaviors was predicted by fathers' emotion-coaching attitudes, and was associated with children's social competence. A cohesive structure for the emotion socialization construct was less clear for mothers, although attitudes predicted all three types of emotion socialization behavior (reactions, expressiveness, and coaching). Implications for developmental theory and for parent-focused interventions are discussed.

Mental disorders in five-year-old children with or without developmental delay: focus on ADHD

Epidemiological studies of children and adolescents with intellectual disability have found 30 to 50% exhibiting clinically significant behavior problems. Few studies, however, have assessed young children, included a cognitively typical comparison group, assessed for specific disorders, and/or studied family correlates of diagnosis. We assessed 236 5-year-old children--95 with developmental delay (DD) and 141 with typical development--for clinical diagnoses using a structured interview. Every disorder assessed was more prevalent in the DD group. The percent of children meeting criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) most highly differentiated the two groups (ratio = 3.21:1). There was high stability from externalizing behavior problems at age 3 to ADHD diagnoses at age 5 in both groups. In regression analyses, parenting stress at child age 3 related to later ADHD diagnosis in both groups and maternal scaffolding (sensitive teaching) also predicted ADHD in the DD group.

Resilience and the course of daily parenting stress in families of young children with intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND

Parenting stresses have consistently been found to be higher in parents of children with intellectual disabilities (ID); yet, some families are able to be resilient and thrive in the face of these challenges. Despite the considerable research on stress in families of ID, there is still little known about the stability and compensatory factors associated with everyday parenting stresses.

METHODS

Trajectories of daily parenting stress were studied for both mothers and fathers of children with ID across child ages 36-60 months, as were specific familial risk and resilience factors that affect these trajectories, including psychological well-being of each parent, marital adjustment and positive parent-child relationships.

RESULTS

Mothers' daily parenting stress significantly increased over time, while fathers' daily parenting stress remained more constant. Decreases in mothers' daily parenting stress trajectory were associated with both mother and father's well-being and perceived marital adjustment, as well as a positive father-child relationship. However, decreases in fathers' daily parenting stress trajectory were only affected by mother's well-being and both parents' perceived marital adjustment.

CONCLUSIONS

Parenting stress processes are not shared entirely across the preschool period in parents of children with ID. Although individual parent characteristics and high-quality dyadic relationships contribute to emerging resilience in parents of children with ID, parents also affect each others' more resilient adaptations in ways that have not been previously considered.

Thinking about feelings: emotion focus in the parenting of children with early developmental risk

BACKGROUND

Children with developmental delays exhibit more difficulty with certain emotional processes than their typically developing peers, which seems to partially account for the increased risk for the development of social problems in this population. Despite considerable study with typically developing populations, research on parental emotion socialisation in families of children with delays is scarce. This study examined the degree to which parents of children with early delays prioritized emotion relative to other important areas of child development and the degree to which they focused on emotion during relevant interactions with their children.

METHOD

Families of 8-year-old children with (n = 42) and without (n = 89) early developmental delays completed questionnaires and interviews, and participated in a parent-child emotion discourse task.

RESULTS

As predicted, parents of children with developmental delays reported lower prioritization of emotion and focused less on emotion during discourse than did parents of typically developing children. A model was supported in which a pathway existed from developmental status through prioritization to emotion focus. Emotion focus, in turn, predicted children's social skills as reported on by multiple informants.

CONCLUSIONS

Parents of children with early developmental delays may focus upon emotion less in their parenting than parents of typically developing children, and related behaviours show associations with children's social skill outcomes. Findings are discussed as an initial step in thinking about the role of emotion socialisation in the families of children with delays.

Prediction of social skills in 6-year-old children with and without developmental delays: contributions of early regulation and maternal scaffolding

Children's emotion dysregulation and maternal scaffolding at age 4 were examined as predictors of social skills at age 6, for 66 children with and 106 without early developmental delays. Observed scaffolding and regulation during frustrating laboratory tasks related to later mother, father, and teacher social-skill ratings for children with delays and were stronger predictors of social skills within this group than were developmental level and early behavior problems. In contrast, fewer associations were found for typically developing children, with early behavior problems providing the only unique prediction to social skills. Data support a model in which dysregulation partially mediates the association between developmental status and social-skill outcomes. Implications for research, prevention, and early intervention are discussed.

Parenting Children With Borderline Intellectual Functioning: A Unique Risk Population

Parenting was examined among families of children with borderline intelligence in comparison to families of typically developing children and children with developmental delays. Parenting data were obtained at child age 5 via naturalistic home observation. Mothers of children with borderline intelligence exhibited less positive and less sensitive parenting behaviors than did other mothers and were least likely to display a style of positive engagement. Children with borderline intelligence were not observed to be more behaviorally problematic than other children; however, their mothers perceived more externalizing symptoms than did mothers of typically developing children. Findings suggest the importance of mothers' explanatory models for child difficulties and highlight children with borderline intelligence as uniquely at risk for poor parenting.

Emotional competence and aggressive behavior in school-age children

Examined emotional competence in 87 children, aged 7-10 years, who varied with respect to reports of aggressive behavior to determine whether individual differences in emotional competence characterize children with higher levels of aggressive behavior. Emotional competence was assessed during a 1-hr lab visit that included (a) an observational period consisting of a modified disappointment paradigm, (b) assessment of cognitive and language abilities, and (c) 2 structured emotion interviews. Children with higher levels of aggressive behavior exhibited more intense and frequent expressions of anger, both as reported by mothers and as observed during the disappointment paradigm. Less sophisticated ability to identify the causes of emotion also characterized children with higher levels of aggressive behavior. Gender moderated the relation between aggressive behavior and type of emotion identified such that reports of happiness (in response to receiving a disappointing prize) were associated with lower levels of reported aggressive behavior for boys. The value of assessing children's emotional competence in the context of an emotionally arousing situation is suggested by these findings.

Behavior problems and parenting stress in families of three-year-old children with and without developmental delays

Children and adolescents with mental retardation are at heightened risk for mental disorder. We examined early evidence of behavior problems in 225 three-year-old children with or without developmental delays and the relative impact of cognitive delays and problem behaviors on their parents. Staff-completed Bayley Behavior Scales and parent-completed Child Behavior Checklists (CBCLs) showed greater problems in children with delays than in those without delays. Children with delays were 3 to 4 times as likely to have a total CBCL score within the clinical range. Parenting stress was higher in delayed condition families. Regression analyses revealed that the extent of child behavior problems was a much stronger contributor to parenting stress than was the child's cognitive delay.

Behavior problems and parenting stress in families of three-year-old children with and without developmental delays

Children and adolescents with mental retardation are at heightened risk for mental disorder. We examined early evidence of behavior problems in 225 three-year-old children with or without developmental delays and the relative impact of cognitive delays and problem behaviors on their parents. Staff-completed Bayley Behavior Scales and parent-completed Child Behavior Checklists (CBCLs) showed greater problems in children with delays than in those without delays. Children with delays were 3 to 4 times as likely to have a total CBCL score within the clinical range. Parenting stress was higher in delayed condition families. Regression analyses revealed that the extent of child behavior problems was a much stronger contributor to parenting stress than was the child's cognitive delay.

Minor parenting stresses with young children

The importance of major life stress and minor daily hassles associated with parenting was studied in 74 mothers and their 5-year-old children. Of interest were the relative and absolute contributions of the stress factors to indices of parental, child, and family functioning. Mothers completed questionnaires regarding stressors, aspects of parenting and individual psychological status, social support, family functioning, and child behavioral status. Mother-child pairs were also observed in interactions in a laboratory setting. Analyses indicated that life stress and parenting daily hassles significantly predicted aspects of child, parent, and family status. Hassles, however, proved to be a more powerful stress construct. Further analyses indicated that mothers' social support moderated the influence of hassles on indices of maternal behavior. The results are discussed in relation to the potential for minor parenting stresses to influence microsocial processes within parent-child relationships and contribute to dysfunction in children and families.

Longitudinal predictors of developmental status and social interaction in premature and full-term infants at age two

This investigation involved the longitudinal assessment of 30 mother-preterm and 40 mother-full-term dyads from birth to 2 years of age. Measures of maternal attitudes, maternal perception of the infant, and parental functioning were obtained at 1 and 8 months of infant age. Mother-infant interactions were observed at 4, 8, 12, and 24 months. Infant cognitive, motor, and language development was assessed at 4, 12, and 24 months. Results indicated that by age 2 years, no group differences were apparent on any child development, mother-child interaction, or maternal attitudinal measures; the lone exception was that preterms were significantly poorer in motor skills. This similarity in functioning at age 2 years was in marked contrast to earlier findings of major group differences at 12 months. Correlational and regression analyses indicated that the developmental and social interaction outcomes were predicted by different factors in the two groups; moreover, whereas 40%-60% of the variance in preterm infants' social and cognitive outcomes could be accounted for, only 15%-30% was accounted for in the full-term group. These results are discussed in terms of compensatory mechanisms that may characterize the parenting of high-risk infants, and of the applicability of transactional models of development.