Associations Between Parenting Behavior and Neural Processing of Adolescent Faces in Mothers With and Without Depression

BACKGROUND

This study first examined how mothers with and without depression differ in neural activation in response to adolescents' affective faces. Second, it examined the extent to which these neural activation patterns are related to observed positive and aggressive parenting behavior.

METHODS

Mothers with and without depression (based on self-reported symptoms and treatment history; n = 77 and n = 64, respectively; meanage = 40 years) from low-income families completed an interaction task with their adolescents (meanage = 12.8 years), which was coded for parents' aggressive and positive affective behavior. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, mothers viewed blurry, happy, sad, and angry faces of unfamiliar adolescents, with an instruction to either label the emotion or determine the clarity of the image.

RESULTS

The depression group showed less activation in the posterior midcingulate than the control subject group while labeling happy faces. Higher activation in the insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (PFC) was related to less positive parenting behavior. Ventrolateral PFC activation was most pronounced when labeling negative emotions, but stronger ventrolateral PFC response to happy faces was associated with more aggressive parenting behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

This demonstrates the association between parents' neural responses to adolescent faces and their behavior during interactions with their own adolescents, with relatively low insula and dorsomedial PFC activation supporting positive parenting and affect-dependent response in the ventrolateral PFC as being important to limit aggressive behavior.

Maternal aggressive behavior in interactions with adolescent offspring: Proximal social-cognitive predictors in depressed and nondepressed mothers

Maternal depressive symptoms are associated with elevations in harsh parenting behavior, including criticism, negative affect, and hostile or coercive behavior, and these behaviors contribute to associations between maternal depressive symptomatology and child functioning. We used multilevel survival analysis to examine social-cognitive processes as proximal predictors of the onset and offset of maternal aggressive behavior during interactions with their adolescent children. Low-income women (N = 180) were selected for either: (a) elevated depressive symptoms and a history of treatment for depression (depressed group) or (b) not more than mild levels of current depressive symptomatology, no history of depression treatment, and no current mental health treatment (nondepressed group). These women and their adolescent children (ages 11-14, M = 12.93; 96 male sex, as assigned at birth) participated in a dyadic problem-solving interaction and mothers completed a video-mediated recall procedure, in which they watched a segment of the interaction, labeled their adolescents' affect, and made attributions for their behavior. Mothers in the depressed group were more likely to initiate aggressive behavior and, once initiated, were less likely to transition out of it. Mothers in both groups were less likely to transition out of aggressive behavior when they made negative attributions for their adolescents' behavior. Findings point to promising cognitive and behavioral targets for intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Impact of Depression on Mothers' Neural Processing of Their Adolescents' Affective Behavior

Depression affects neural processing of emotional stimuli and could, therefore, impact parent–child interactions. However, the neural processes with which mothers with depression process their adolescents’ affective interpersonal signals and how this relates to mothers’ parenting behavior are poorly understood. Mothers with and without depression (N = 64 and N = 51, respectively; M_age = 40 years) from low-income families completed an interaction task with their adolescents (M_age = 12.8 years), which was coded for both individuals’ aggressive, dysphoric, positive and neutral affective behavior. While undergoing fMRI, mothers viewed video clips from this task of affective behavior from their own and an unfamiliar adolescent. Relative to non-depressed mothers, those with depression showed more aggressive and less positive affective behavior during the interaction task and more activation in the bilateral insula, superior temporal gyrus and striatum but less in the lateral prefrontal cortex while viewing aggressive and neutral affect. Findings were comparable for own and unfamiliar adolescents’ affect. Heightened limbic, striatal and sensory responses were associated with more aggressive and dysphoric parenting behavior during the interactions, while reduced lateral prefrontal activation was associated with less positive parenting behavior. These results highlight the importance of depressed mothers’ affective information processing for understanding mothers’ behavior during interactions with their adolescents.

Affective and Autonomic Reactivity During Parent-Child Interactions in Depressed and Non-Depressed Mothers and Their Adolescent Offspring

Depression presents risks that are profound and intergenerational, yet research on the association of depression with the physiological processes that might be associated with impaired mental and physical health has only recently been contextualized within the family environment. Participants in this multi-method case-control study were 180 mother-adolescent dyads (50% mothers with a history of depression treatment and current depressive symptoms). In order to examine the association between maternal depression and affective and autonomic reactivity amongst these mothers and their adolescent offspring we collected self-reported measures of positive and negative affect, as well as measures of cardiovascular and electrodermal autonomic activity, during mother-adolescent interaction tasks. Findings indicated that depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring exhibited greater self-reported negative affect reactivity during a problem-solving interaction and blunted (i.e., low) sympathetic activity as measured via skin conductance level across both interaction tasks. These effects remained significant after controlling for a range of potential covariates, including medication use, sex, age, adolescents own mental health symptoms, and behavior of the other interactant, along with correcting for multiple comparisons. Findings indicate that depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring both exhibit patterns of affect and physiology during interactions that are different from those of non-depressed mothers and their offspring, including increased negative affect reactivity during negative interactions and blunted sympathetic activity across both positive and negative interactions. These findings have potential implications for understanding the role of family processes in the intergenerational transmission of risk for depressive disorders.

Optimizing Social-Emotional-Communication Development in Infants of Mothers With Depression: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Mobile Intervention Targeting Depression and Responsive Parenting

BACKGROUND

Postpartum depression interferes with maternal engagement in interventions that are effective in improving infant social-emotional and social-communication outcomes. There is an absence of integrated interventions with demonstrated effectiveness in both reducing maternal depression and promoting parent-mediated practices that optimize infant social-emotional and social-communication competencies. Interventions targeting maternal depression are often separate from parent-mediated interventions. To address the life course needs of depressed mothers and their infants, we need brief, accessible, and integrated interventions that target both maternal depression and specific parent practices shown to improve infant social-emotional and social-communication trajectories.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a mobile internet intervention, Mom and Baby Net, with remote coaching to improve maternal mood and promote parent practices that optimize infant social-emotional and social-communication development.

METHODS

This is a two-arm, randomized controlled intent-to-treat trial. Primary outcomes include maternal depression symptoms and observed parent and infant behaviors. Outcomes are measured via direct observational assessments and standardized questionnaires. The sample is being recruited from the urban core of a large southern city in the United States. Study enrollment was initiated in 2017 and concluded in 2020. Participants are biological mothers with elevated depression symptoms, aged 18 years or older, and who have custody of an infant less than 12 months of age. Exclusion criteria at the time of screening include maternal homelessness or shelter residence, inpatient mental health or substance abuse treatment, or maternal or infant treatment of a major mental or physical illness that would hinder meaningful study participation.

RESULTS

The start date of this grant-funded randomized controlled trial (RCT) was September 1, 2016. Data collection is ongoing. Following the institutional review board (IRB)-approved pilot work, the RCT was approved by the IRB on November 17, 2017. Recruitment was initiated immediately following IRB approval. Between February 15, 2018, and March 11, 2021, we successfully recruited a sample of 184 women and their infants into the RCT. The sample is predominantly African American and socioeconomically disadvantaged.

CONCLUSIONS

Data collection is scheduled to be concluded in March 2022. We anticipate that relative to the attention control condition, which is focused on education around maternal depression and infant developmental milestones with matching technology and coaching structure, mothers in the Mom and Baby Net intervention will experience greater reductions in depression and gains in sensitive and responsive parent practices and that their infants will demonstrate greater gains in social-emotional and social-communication behavior.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03464630; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03464630.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)

DERR1-10.2196/31072.

Psychobiological markers of allostatic load in depressed and nondepressed mothers and their adolescent offspring

BACKGROUND

A substantial body of research has emerged suggesting that depression is strongly linked to poor physical health outcomes, which may be partly due to increased allostatic load across stress response systems. Interestingly, health risks associated with depression are also borne by the offspring of depressed persons. Our aim was to simultaneously investigate whether maternal depression is associated not only with increased allostatic load across cardiac control, inflammation, cellular aging, but also if this is transmitted to adolescent children, possibly increasing the risk for early onset of psychiatric conditions and disease in these offspring.

METHODS

A preregistered, case-control study of 180 low-income mothers (50% mothers depressed, 50% mothers nondepressed) and their adolescent offspring was conducted to determine how depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring systematically differ in terms of autonomic, sympathetic, and parasympathetic cardiac control; inflammation; cellular aging; and behavioral health in offspring, which are indicators suggestive of higher allostatic load.

RESULTS

Findings indicate that depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring differ in terms of comorbid mental and physical health risk profiles that are suggestive of higher allostatic load. Findings indicate that depressed mothers exhibit elevated resting heart rate and decreased heart rate variability, and adolescent offspring of depressed mothers exhibit greater mental health symptoms, elevated heart rate, and accelerated biological aging (shorter telomeres). These effects persisted after controlling for a range of potential covariates, including medication use, sex, age, and adolescents' own mental health symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings indicate that maternal depression is associated with increased allostatic load in depressed women and their adolescent children, possibly increasing risk for early onset of psychiatric conditions and disease in these offspring. Future research is needed to delineate why some biological systems are more impacted than others and to explore how findings might inform preventative programs targeted at adolescent offspring of depressed mothers.

Adolescent gender differences in neural reactivity to a friend's positive affect and real-world positive experiences in social contexts

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Males reported more recent happy occasions with class/teammates than females.

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Males activated fusiform gyrus more than females while viewing unfamiliar peers.

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Striatum functional connectivity mediated gender differences in social behavior.

Peers become increasingly important during adolescence, with emerging gender differences in peer relationships associated with distinct behavioral and emotional outcomes. Males tend to socialize in larger peer groups with competitive interactions, whereas females engage in longer bouts of dyadic interaction with more intimacy. To examine gender differences in neural response to ecologically valid displays of positive affect and future social interactions, 52 adolescents (14–18 years old; female = 30) completed a social reward functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task with videos of a same-gender best friend (BF) or unfamiliar peer (UP) expressing positive (versus neutral) affect. Participants completed ecological momentary assessment of social experiences for two 5-day intervals. Compared with females, males more often reported that their happiest experience in the past hour occurred with class/teammates. Females and males displayed greater fusiform gyrus (FG) activation during BF and UP conditions, respectively (p_voxel<0.0001, p_cluster<0.05, family-wise error). Compared with males, females exhibited greater nucleus accumbens (NAcc)-precuneus functional connectivity to BF Positive> UP Positive. An exploratory analysis indicated that the association of male gender with a greater proportion of positive experiences with class/teammates was statistically mediated by greater NAcc-precuneus functional connectivity. Gender differences in positive social experiences may be associated with reward and social cognition networks.

Parental coping socialization is associated with healthy and anxious early-adolescents' neural and real-world response to threat

The ways parents socialize their adolescents to cope with anxiety (i.e., coping socialization) may be instrumental in the development of threat processing and coping responses. Coping socialization may be important for anxious adolescents, as they show altered neural threat processing and over reliance on disengaged coping (e.g., avoidance and distraction), which can maintain anxiety. We investigated whether coping socialization was associated with anxious and healthy adolescents' neural response to threat, and whether neural activation was associated with disengaged coping. Healthy and clinically anxious early adolescents (N = 120; M = 11.46 years; 71 girls) and a parent engaged in interactions designed to elicit adolescents' anxiety and parents' response to adolescents' anxiety. Parents' use of reframing and problem solving statements was coded to measure coping socialization. In a subsequent visit, we assessed adolescents' neural response to threat words during a neuroimaging task. Adolescents' disengaged coping was measured using ecological momentary assessment. Greater coping socialization was associated with lower anterior insula and perigenual cingulate activation in healthy adolescents and higher activation in anxious adolescents. Coping socialization was indirectly associated with less disengaged coping for anxious adolescents through neural activation. Findings suggest that associations between coping socialization and early adolescents' neural response to threat differ depending on clinical status and have implications for anxious adolescents' coping.

Temptations of friends: adolescents' neural and behavioral responses to best friends predict risky behavior

Adolescents are notorious for engaging in risky, reward-motivated behavior, and this behavior occurs most often in response to social reward, typically in the form of peer contexts involving intense positive affect. A combination of greater neural and behavioral sensitivity to peer positive affect may characterize adolescents who are especially likely to engage in risky behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we examined 50 adolescents’ reciprocal positive affect and neural response to a personally relevant, ecologically valid pleasant stimulus: positive affect expressed by their best friend during a conversation about past and future rewarding mutual experiences. Participants were typically developing community adolescents (age 14–18 years, 48.6% female), and risky behavior was defined as a factor including domains such as substance use, sexual behavior and suicidality. Adolescents who engaged in more real-life risk-taking behavior exhibited either a combination of high reciprocal positive affect behavior and high response in the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex—a region associated with impulsive sensation-seeking—or the opposite combination. Behavioral and neural sensitivity to peer influence could combine to contribute to pathways from peer influence to risky behavior, with implications for healthy development.

Randomized control trial of an internet-based parenting intervention for mothers of infants

Early parenting home-visiting interventions have been found to be highly effective in promoting child development. Yet, there are many obstacles in the implementation of home-visiting programs, including travel and access to trained providers. Internet-based interventions can reach many parents of infants to overcome these barriers. The objective of this randomized control trial was to evaluate the impact of the Internet-adaptation of the Play and Learning Strategies (PALS) program, a preventive intervention program to strengthen effective parenting practices that promote early language, cognitive, and social development. others in low-income environments (N = 164) of infants were randomized to either (a) an Internet-facilitated PALS parenting intervention or (b) an Internet-facilitated attention control condition. Measures included direct observations of maternal behavior with her infant, questionnaires about maternal functioning and parenting knowledge, and real-time program usage. Experimental participants demonstrated significantly greater increases in parenting knowledge and observed language-supportive parenting behaviors with a correlated positive change in infant language behaviors. Effects were pronounced when participants received a greater dosage of the intervention. Results suggest that the Internet-based translation of the PALS program is effective as a remotely delivered intervention for economically disadvantaged families to strengthen early parenting behaviors that promote infant social communication and child language development.

A Randomized Controlled Trial Examination of a Remote Parenting Intervention: Engagement and Effects on Parenting Behavior and Child Abuse Potential

Technology advances increasingly allow for access to remotely delivered interventions designed to promote early parenting practices that protect against child maltreatment. Among low-income families, at somewhat elevated risk for child maltreatment, there is some evidence that parents do engage in and benefit from remote-coaching interventions. However, little is known about the effectiveness of such programs to engage and benefit families at high risk for child maltreatment due to multiple stressors associated with poverty. To address this limitation, we examined engagement and outcomes among mothers at heightened risk for child abuse, who were enrolled in a randomized controlled, intent-to-treat trial of an Internet adaptation of an evidence-based infant parenting intervention. We found that engagement patterns were similar between higher and lower risk groups. Moreover, an intervention dose by condition effect was found for increased positive parent behavior and reduced child abuse potential.

Role of Positive Parenting in the Association Between Neighborhood Social Disadvantage and Brain Development Across Adolescence

IMPORTANCE

The negative effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on lifelong functioning are pronounced, with some evidence suggesting that these effects are mediated by changes in brain development. To our knowledge, no research has investigated whether parenting might buffer these negative effects.

OBJECTIVE

To establish whether positive parenting behaviors moderate the effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on brain development and adaptive functioning in adolescents.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

In this longitudinal study of adolescents from schools in Melbourne, Australia, data were collected at 3 assessments between 2004 and 2012. Data were analyzed between August 2016 and April 2017.

EXPOSURES

Both family (parental income-to-needs, occupation, and education level) and neighborhood measures of socioeconomic disadvantage were assessed. Positive maternal parenting behaviors were observed during interactions in early adolescence.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans at 3 times (early, middle, and late adolescence) from ages 11 to 20 years. Global and academic functioning was assessed during late adolescence. We used linear mixed models to examine the effect of family and neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage as well as the moderating effect of positive parenting on adolescent brain development. We used mediation models to examine whether brain developmental trajectories predicted functional outcomes during late adolescence.

RESULTS

Of the included 166 adolescents, 86 (51.8%) were male. We found that neighborhood, but not family, socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with altered brain development from early (mean [SD] age, 12.79 [0.425] years) to late (mean [SD] age, 19.08 [0.460] years) adolescence, predominantly in the temporal lobes (temporal cortex: random field theory corrected; left amygdala: B, -0.237; P < .001; right amygdala: B, -0.209; P = .008). Additionally, positive parenting moderated the effects of neighborhood disadvantage on the development of dorsal frontal and lateral orbitofrontal cortices as well as the effects of family disadvantage on the development of the amygdala (occupation: B, 0.382; P = .004; income-to-needs: B, 27.741; P = .004), with some male-specific findings. The pattern of dorsal frontal cortical development in males from disadvantaged neighborhoods exposed to low maternal positivity predicted increased rates of school noncompletion (indirect effect, -0.018; SE, 0.01; 95% CI, -0.053 to -0.001).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

Our findings highlight the importance of neighborhood disadvantage in influencing brain developmental trajectories. Further, to our knowledge, we present the first evidence that positive maternal parenting might ameliorate the negative effects of socioeconomic disadvantage on frontal lobe development (with implications for functioning) during adolescence. Results have relevance for designing interventions for children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.

Does Context Matter? A Multi-Method Assessment of Affect in Adolescent Depression Across Multiple Affective Interaction Contexts

This study utilized a multi-method approach (self-reported affect, observed behavior, and psychophysiology) to investigate differences between clinically depressed and non-depressed adolescents across three different affective interaction contexts with their parents. 152 adolescents (52 males, 14-18 y.o.), and their parents, participated in a laboratory session in which they discussed positive and negative aspects of their relationship, and reminisced on positive and negative memories. We found that across contexts depressed adolescents exhibited higher negative affect and behaviors, lower positive behaviors, and greater autonomic and sympathetic activity. Context specific findings indicated that depressed adolescents 1) exhibited greater persistence of negative affect and dysphoric behavior across the sequence of tasks, whereas these phenomena declined amongst their non-depressed peers, 2) depressed adolescents had greater increases in aggressive behaviors during negative interactions, and 3) depressed adolescents had greater parasympathetic withdrawal during negative interactions, while this response characterized the non-depressed group during positive interactions.

Emotion Socialization in Anxious Youth: Parenting Buffers Emotional Reactivity to Peer Negative Events

Anxious youth exhibit heightened emotional reactivity, particularly to social-evaluative threat, such as peer evaluation and feedback, compared to non-anxious youth. Moreover, normative developmental changes during the transition into adolescence may exacerbate emotional reactivity to peer negative events, particularly for anxious youth. Therefore, it is important to investigate factors that may buffer emotional reactivity within peer contexts among anxious youth. The current study examined the role of parenting behaviors in child emotional reactivity to peer and non-peer negative events among 86 anxious youth in middle childhood to adolescence (Mean age = 11.29, 54 % girls). Parenting behavior and affect was observed during a social-evaluative laboratory speech task for youth, and ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods were used to examine youth emotional reactivity to typical daily negative events within peer and non-peer contexts. Results showed that parent positive behaviors, and low levels of parent anxious affect, during the stressful laboratory task for youth buffered youth negative emotional reactivity to real-world negative peer events, but not non-peer events. Findings inform our understanding of parenting influences on anxious youth's emotional reactivity to developmentally salient negative events during the transition into adolescence.

Does Internet-based guided-self-help for depression cause harm? An individual participant data meta-analysis on deterioration rates and its moderators in randomized controlled trials

BACKGROUND

Almost nothing is known about the potential negative effects of Internet-based psychological treatments for depression. This study aims at investigating deterioration and its moderators within randomized trials on Internet-based guided self-help for adult depression, using an individual patient data meta-analyses (IPDMA) approach.

METHOD

Studies were identified through systematic searches (PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Cochrane Library). Deterioration in participants was defined as a significant symptom increase according to the reliable change index (i.e. 7.68 points in the CES-D; 7.63 points in the BDI). Two-step IPDMA procedures, with a random-effects model were used to pool data.

RESULTS

A total of 18 studies (21 comparisons, 2079 participants) contributed data to the analysis. The risk for a reliable deterioration from baseline to post-treatment was significantly lower in the intervention v. control conditions (3.36 v. 7.60; relative risk 0.47, 95% confidence interval 0.29-0.75). Education moderated effects on deterioration, with patients with low education displaying a higher risk for deterioration than patients with higher education. Deterioration rates for patients with low education did not differ statistically significantly between intervention and control groups. The benefit-risk ratio for patients with low education indicated that 9.38 patients achieve a treatment response for each patient experiencing a symptom deterioration.

CONCLUSIONS

Internet-based guided self-help is associated with a mean reduced risk for a symptom deterioration compared to controls. Treatment and symptom progress of patients with low education should be closely monitored, as some patients might face an increased risk for symptom deterioration. Future studies should examine predictors of deterioration in patients with low education.

School-Based Primary Prevention of Depressive Symptomatology in Adolescents

Two school-based primary prevention interventions for adolescent depressive symptomatology and disorder were examined in separate studies with high school samples of 9th and 10th-grade adolescents. In Study 1, a three-session educational intervention was associated with a short-term reduction in extreme-scoring cases of depressive symptoms among boys, but not girls, when compared to a randomly assigned control condition. However, this effect was not sustained over a 12-week follow-up period. In Study 2, a five-session behavioral skills training intervention, failed to demonstrate any differences compared to a random control condition. Neither of the two interventions had any effect on depression knowledge, attitudes toward treatment, or actual treatment seeking. The failure of these interventions to yield long-term effects is discussed in the context of successful prevention interventions for nonneurotic problem behaviors. The authors conclude that depression may be best prevented with a competency-based intervention targeting several disorders.

Emotion socialization in the context of risk and psychopathology: Mother and father socialization of anger and sadness in adolescents with depressive disorder

This study examined parental emotion socialization processes associated with adolescent unipolar depressive disorder. Adolescent participants (N=107; 42 boys) were selected either to meet criteria for current unipolar depressive disorder or to be psychologically healthy as defined by no lifetime history of psychopathology or mental health treatment and low levels of current depressive symptomatology. A multisource/method measurement strategy was used to assess mothers' and fathers' responses to adolescent sad and angry emotion. Each parent and the adolescents completed questionnaire measures of parental emotion socialization behavior, and participated in meta-emotion interviews and parent-adolescent interactions. As hypothesized, parents of adolescents with depressive disorder engaged in fewer supportive responses and more unsupportive responses overall relative to parents of nondepressed adolescents. Between group differences were more pronounced for families of boys, and for fathers relative to mothers. The findings indicate that parent emotion socialization is associated with adolescent depression and highlight the importance of including fathers in studies of emotion socialization, especially as it relates to depression.

Observed Measures of Negative Parenting Predict Brain Development during Adolescence

Limited attention has been directed toward the influence of non-abusive parenting behaviour on brain structure in adolescents. It has been suggested that environmental influences during this period are likely to impact the way that the brain develops over time. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between aggressive and positive parenting behaviors on brain development from early to late adolescence, and in turn, psychological and academic functioning during late adolescence, using a multi-wave longitudinal design. Three hundred and sixty seven magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained over three time points from 166 adolescents (11-20 years). At the first time point, observed measures of maternal aggressive and positive behaviors were obtained. At the final time point, measures of psychological and academic functioning were obtained. Results indicated that a higher frequency of maternal aggressive behavior was associated with alterations in the development of right superior frontal and lateral parietal cortical thickness, and of nucleus accumbens volume, in males. Development of the superior frontal cortex in males mediated the relationship between maternal aggressive behaviour and measures of late adolescent functioning. We suggest that our results support an association between negative parenting and adolescent functioning, which may be mediated by immature or delayed brain maturation.

Dual-axis hormonal covariation in adolescence and the moderating influence of prior trauma and aversive maternal parenting

Adversity early in life can disrupt the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axes and increase risk for negative health outcomes. The interplay between these axes and the environment is complex, and understanding needs to be advanced by the investigation of the multiple hormonal relationships underlying these processes. The current study examined basal hormonal associations between morning levels of cortisol, testosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone in a cohort of adolescents (mean age 15.56 years). The moderating influence of childhood adversity was also examined, as indexed by self-reported trauma (at mean age 14.91), and observed maternal aggressive parenting (at mean age 12.41). Between-person regressions revealed significant associations between hormones that were moderated by both measures of adversity. In females, all hormones positively covaried, but also interacted with adversity, such that positive covariation was typically only present when levels of trauma and/or aggressive parenting were low. In males, hormonal associations and interactions were less evident; however, interactions were detected for cortisol-testosterone - positively covarying at high levels of aggressive parenting but negatively covarying at low levels - and DHEA-cortisol - similarly positively covarying at high levels of parental aggression. These results demonstrate associations between adrenal and gonadal hormones and the moderating role of adversity, which is likely driven by feedback mechanisms, or cross-talk, between the axes. These findings suggest that hormonal changes may be the pathway through which early life adversity alters physiology and increases health risks, but does so differentially in the sexes; however further study is necessary to establish causation.

Affective behavior and temperament predict the onset of smoking in adolescence

Earlier use of tobacco in adolescence is associated with numerous adverse outcomes later in life. Although a number of studies have linked individual differences in affective functioning to adolescent smoking, these have relied primarily on self-report measures, and the contribution of different dimensions of affect to the onset of tobacco use during this period remains unclear. The current study examined these issues in a sample of 180 adolescents recruited from an ongoing prospective, longitudinal study examining emotional development. At approximately age 12, participants completed a questionnaire measure of affective temperament and took part in a family interaction task that was coded observationally to provide measures of dysphoric, aggressive, and positive behaviors. At 2 subsequent assessments, which took place approximately 2.5 years and 4 years after the initial assessment, participants completed a questionnaire measure of substance use. In total, 70 participants initiated smoking between the ages of 12 and 17. An earlier onset of smoking was predicted by more aggressive and less positive observed behavior during the interaction task, as well as lower levels of self-reported temperamental Effortful Control. There were no associations between dysphoric behaviors, or temperamental measures of negative affectivity or surgency and the onset of smoking. The findings add to a small body of literature demonstrating that behavioral components of affect can prospectively predict substance use in adolescence and suggest that different dimensions of affect show unique relationships with early substance use. (PsycINFO Database Record

Project home: a pilot evaluation of an emotion-focused intervention for mothers reuniting with children after prison

Nearly 2 million children in the United States have a parent in prison. The circumstances related to this situation place them at increased risk for behavioral and emotional disorders. The process of reunification between mother and child after release is a stressful and emotional one. A pilot study was conducted to develop and test a new program, Emotions: Taking Care of Yourself and Your Child When You Go Home. The objective of the Emotions Program was to teach emotion regulation and emotion coaching skills to incarcerated mothers so as to assist mothers and their children to cope better with the stress associated with incarceration and the transition home from prison. Pilot participants (N = 47) had previously participated in Parenting Inside Out, an evidence-based parenting program for incarcerated parents. The participants were then assigned to the Emotions Program (n = 29) or the comparison condition of no additional treatment (n = 18). All mothers were assessed before (T1) and after the program (T2), and again 6 months after release from prison (T3). Intervention effects of the Emotions Program on mothers' emotion regulation, emotion socialization, and adjustment were examined using repeated-measures analysis of variance with a between-subjects factor of group (Emotions Program vs. comparison) and a within-subjects factor of time (T1 vs. T2 vs. T3). Moderate time by group interaction effects were observed for aspects of emotion regulation, emotion socialization behavior, and criminal behavior in mothers, with participants in the Emotions condition showing improvement relative to those in the comparison condition.

Parental emotion socialization in clinically depressed adolescents: enhancing and dampening positive affect

This study compared parental socialization of adolescent positive affect in families of depressed and healthy adolescents. Participants were 107 adolescents (42 boys) aged 14 - 18 years and their parents. Half of the participants met criteria for major depressive disorder and the others were demographically matched adolescents without emotional or behavioral disorders. Results based on multi-source questionnaire and interview data indicated that mothers and fathers of depressed adolescents were less accepting of adolescents' positive affect and more likely to use strategies that dampen adolescents' positive affect than were parents of healthy adolescents. Additionally, fathers of depressed adolescents exhibited fewer responses likely to enhance the adolescents' positive affect than were fathers of healthy adolescents. These findings build on those of previous work in examining parental responses to adolescent emotions, focusing on positive emotions and including both mothers and fathers.

Positive parenting predicts the development of adolescent brain structure: a longitudinal study

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Positive parenting predicts development of adolescent amygdala and prefrontal cortex.

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Positive parenting has a unique influence on adolescent brain development.

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Positive and negative parenting are not opposite sides of a continuum.

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Parenting interventions may promote healthy adolescent brain development.

Little work has been conducted that examines the effects of positive environmental experiences on brain development to date. The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate the effects of positive (warm and supportive) maternal behavior on structural brain development during adolescence, using longitudinal structural MRI. Participants were 188 (92 female) adolescents, who were part of a longitudinal adolescent development study that involved mother–adolescent interactions and MRI scans at approximately 12 years old, and follow-up MRI scans approximately 4 years later. FreeSurfer software was used to estimate the volume of limbic-striatal regions (amygdala, hippocampus, caudate, putamen, pallidum, and nucleus accumbens) and the thickness of prefrontal regions (anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortices) across both time points. Higher frequency of positive maternal behavior during the interactions predicted attenuated volumetric growth in the right amygdala, and accelerated cortical thinning in the right anterior cingulate (males only) and left and right orbitofrontal cortices, between baseline and follow up. These results have implications for understanding the biological mediators of risk and protective factors for mental disorders that have onset during adolescence.

"You can do it!": The role of parental encouragement of bravery in child anxiety treatment

Individual cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) provides anxious youth with skills and experiences to increase "brave" behavior in the face of feared situations. This study addresses whether parental encouragement of bravery during an anxiety provoking and potentially avoidable naturalistic speech task (a) differs between parents of youth (ages 9-13) with anxiety disorders (N=47) and parents of healthy non-anxious controls (N=20); (b) influences response to treatment; and (c) changes during treatment for anxious youth randomized to receive CBT (N=30) or Child-Centered Therapy (CCT; a non-directive active comparison treatment; N=17). Parent-child dyads were videotaped during a discussion of whether or not the child should complete an optional speech task. Parents of anxious youth showed less encouragement of bravery than parents of controls. Encouragement of bravery increased from pre- to post-treatment for youth who received CBT but not CCT, and pre-treatment encouragement of bravery predicted a better response to treatment, particularly for youth receiving CBT.

Adolescent recognition of parental affect: influence of depressive symptoms

This study examined depressive biases in adolescents' labeling of parental affect. Adolescents (151 girls; 82 boys) and their parents engaged in videotaped problem-solving interactions. Adolescents then participated in a video-mediated recall procedure in which they watched the videotaped interaction and indicated how they thought their parents were feeling. Indices of parents' affect during the problem-solving interactions were also provided by parent self-report and behavioral observations. Adolescent depressive symptoms were associated with overreporting of parental aggressive affect and underreporting of parental happy and neutral affects, relative to both directly observed and self-reported parental affect. Depressive symptoms were not associated with overreporting of parental dysphoric affect. Given the importance of accurately reading affective cues for negotiating interpersonal interactions, these findings likely have implications for understanding processes that contribute to adverse relationships among the families of adolescents with depressive symptoms.

Adolescents' depressive symptoms moderate neural responses to their mothers' positive behavior

The way that parents express their emotions during interactions with their adolescent children is important for adolescent adjustment, and predicts adolescent emotional problems such as depression. In the current study, we assessed whether adolescent depressive symptoms were associated with neural activity during exposure to their mother's affective behavior. Thirty adolescents (18 females, mean age 17.35, s.d. 0.43) participated in an fMRI task that used digitized video segments of their own mother's, as well as an unfamiliar mother's affective behavior as stimuli. Exposure to one's own (compared to an unfamiliar) mother's positive (compared to neutral) behavior was associated with activation in the anterior and posterior cingulate, precuneus and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. In contrast, exposure to positive behavior across own and an unfamiliar mother (controlling for neutral behavior) was associated with superior temporal sulcus, occipital pole, amygdala and striatum activity. Adolescent depressive symptoms were associated with reduced rostral anterior cingulate activity during exposure to one's own (compared to an unfamiliar) mother's positive behavior, and reduced striatal activity during exposure to positive behavior in general. This study represents an important step in furthering our understanding of the neural basis of affective processing in adolescents. Further, the results support a disruption of reward function in depression.

A hierarchical state space approach to affective dynamics

Linear dynamical system theory is a broad theoretical framework that has been applied in various research areas such as engineering, econometrics and recently in psychology. It quantifies the relations between observed inputs and outputs that are connected through a set of latent state variables. State space models are used to investigate the dynamical properties of these latent quantities. These models are especially of interest in the study of emotion dynamics, with the system representing the evolving emotion components of an individual. However, for simultaneous modeling of individual and population differences, a hierarchical extension of the basic state space model is necessary. Therefore, we introduce a Bayesian hierarchical model with random effects for the system parameters. Further, we apply our model to data that were collected using the Oregon adolescent interaction task: 66 normal and 67 depressed adolescents engaged in a conflict interaction with their parents and second-to-second physiological and behavioral measures were obtained. System parameters in normal and depressed adolescents were compared, which led to interesting discussions in the light of findings in recent literature on the links between cardiovascular processes, emotion dynamics and depression. We illustrate that our approach is flexible and general: The model can be applied to any time series for multiple systems (where a system can represent any entity) and moreover, one is free to focus on whatever component of the versatile model.

Autonomic cardiac control in depressed adolescents

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to identify the aspects of cardiac physiology associated with depressive disorder early in life by examining measures of autonomic cardiac control in a community-based sample of depressed adolescents at an early phase of illness, and matched on a number of demographic factors with a nondepressed comparison group.

METHODS

Participants were 127 adolescents (44 boys), ages 14-18, who formed two demographically matched groups of clinically depressed and nondepressed participants. Adolescents were excluded if they evidenced comorbid externalizing or substance-dependence disorders, were taking medications with known cardiac effects, or reported regular nicotine use. Resting measures of heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, skin conductance level, blood pressure, and pre-ejection period were collected.

RESULTS

Depressed adolescents had resting heart rates significantly higher than those of healthy adolescents. No other measure of autonomic functioning differentiated the groups. Post hoc analyses were conducted to examine the influence of illness chronicity, severity, comorbidity, and sex on cardiac psychophysiology. These variables did not appear to exert a significant influence on the findings.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that neither autonomic cardiac control, illness chronicity, or severity, nor medication effects fully explain resting heart rate differences between depressed and nondepressed adolescents. Future research on depression and heart rate should consider mechanisms other than sympathetic or parasympathetic control as potential explanations of heart rate differences, including blood-clotting mechanisms, vascular and endothelial dysfunction of the coronary arteries, and inflammatory immune system response.

Maternal emotion coaching, adolescent anger regulation, and siblings' externalizing symptoms

BACKGROUND

Increases in externalizing behaviors during the transition to adolescence may put children at risk for developing mental disorders and related problems. Although children's ability to regulate their emotions appears to be a key factor influencing risk for maladjustment, emotion processes during adolescence remain understudied. In this longitudinal study, we examined a multi-level mediational model in which emotion coaching by parents was posited to influence the ability of adolescents to regulate their emotions, which in turn influences their expression of problem behaviors.

METHODS

We recruited a representative community sample of 244 families with biological sibling pairs comprising a child in late elementary school and a child in middle school. Maternal meta-emotion interviews were coded for mother emotion coaching and adolescent difficulty with anger. Mothers also completed questionnaires on adolescent irritability. Ratings of adolescent problem behaviors were obtained from mother and teacher questionnaires completed at two time points. Using structural equation modeling, constructs were partitioned into components across older and younger siblings to examine shared and nonshared variance and contextual effects.

RESULTS

Cross-sectional data indicated that mothers' emotion coaching of anger was related to better anger regulation in adolescent siblings, which was, in turn related to less externalizing behavior. Although support for mediational effects was limited in the longitudinal data, both older and younger siblings' difficulties in regulating anger predicted adolescent externalizing behavior three years later. Additional longitudinal predictors of externalizing behavior were observed for younger siblings. In particular, emotion coaching of anger by mothers was associated with decreased externalizing behavior, while conversely, older siblings' externalizing behavior was associated with increased externalizing behavior in the younger siblings over time.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight the importance of considering family emotion processes in understanding adolescent problem behavior. Both maternal emotion coaching of adolescent anger and adolescent difficulty in regulating anger influenced adolescent externalizing behavior. Emotion coaching interventions seem worthy of consideration for enhancing the impact of prevention and intervention programs targeting youth externalizing behaviors.

Maternal responses to adolescent positive affect are associated with adolescents' reward neuroanatomy

The development of reward-based learning and decision-making, and the neural circuitry underlying these processes, appears to be influenced negatively by adverse child-rearing environments characterized by abuse and other forms of maltreatment. No research to-date has investigated whether normative variations in the child-rearing environment have effects on adolescent brain structure. We examined whether normative variations in maternal responses to adolescents' positive affective behavior were associated with morphometric measures of the adolescents' affective neural circuitry, namely the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Healthy adolescents (N = 113) participated in laboratory-based interaction tasks with their mothers, and underwent high-resolution (3T) structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The mother-adolescent interactions included a pleasant event-planning interaction (EPI) and a conflictual problem-solving interaction (PSI). Adolescents, whose mothers displayed more punishing responses to their positive affective behavior during both tasks, and only during the PSI, had larger left dorsal ACC and bilateral OFC volumes, respectively. In addition, boys whose mothers evidenced this pattern of behavior during the EPI had larger right amygdala volumes. These results suggest that normative variations in maternal responses to affective behavior are associated with the structural characteristics of adolescents' affective neural circuitry, which may have implications for the development of their social, cognitive and affective functioning.

Parent and adolescent depressive symptoms: the role of parental attributions

This study examined whether negative parental attributions for adolescent behaviour mediate the association between parental and adolescent depressive symptoms, and whether this relationship is moderated by adolescent gender. Mothers and fathers and 124 adolescents (76 girls and 48 boys; ages 14 to 18) participated. Adolescents were primarily Caucasian, and varied in the level of depressive symptoms (with 27% of the sample meeting diagnostic criteria for a current unipolar depressive disorder). Parents and adolescents completed measures of depressive symptoms, and participated in a videotaped problem-solving discussion. After the discussion, each parent watched the videotape and, at 20 s intervals, offered attributions for their adolescent's behaviour. Adolescent gender moderated the relation between parental attributions and adolescent depressive symptoms, with stronger associations for female adolescents. For both mothers and fathers, both parental depressive symptoms and negative attributions about the adolescent's behaviour made unique contributions to the prediction of depressive symptoms in adolescent females. There also was evidence that negative attributions partially mediated the link between depressive symptoms in mothers and adolescent daughters. The results are interpreted as consistent with parenting as a partial mediator between parental and adolescent depressive symptoms, and suggest that adolescent girls may be particularly sensitive to parents' negative interpretations of their behaviour.

Interaction of parenting experiences and brain structure in the prediction of depressive symptoms in adolescents

CONTEXT

Although some evidence suggests that neuroanatomic abnormalities may confer risk for major depressive disorder, findings are inconsistent. One potential explanation for this is the moderating role of environmental context, with individuals differing in their biological sensitivity to context.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the influence of adverse parenting as an environmental moderator of the association between brain structure and depressive symptoms.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional measurement of brain structure, adverse parenting, and depressive symptoms in early adolescents.

SETTING

General community.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 106 students aged 11 to 13 years (55 males [51%]), recruited from primary schools in Melbourne, Australia, and their mothers. Selection was based on affective temperament, aimed at producing a sample representing a broad range of risk for major depressive disorder. No participant evidenced current or past case-level depressive, substance use, or eating disorder.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

(1) Volumetric measures of adolescents' amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC); (2) frequency of observed maternal aggressive behavior during a mother-adolescent conflict-resolution interaction; and (3) adolescent depressive symptoms.

RESULTS

Boys with smaller right amygdalas reported more depressive symptoms. However, neither hippocampal volume nor asymmetry measures of limbic or paralimbic ACC were directly related to level of depressive symptoms. Importantly, frequency of maternal aggressive behaviors moderated the associations between both the amygdala and ACC, and adolescent symptoms. Particularly, in conditions of low levels of maternal aggressiveness, boys with larger right amygdalas, girls with smaller bilateral amygdalas, and both boys and girls with smaller left paralimbic ACC reported fewer symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings help elucidate the complex relationships between brain structure, environmental factors, and depressive symptoms. Further longitudinal research is required to examine how these factors contribute to the onset of case-level disorder, but given that family context risk factors are modifiable, our findings do suggest the potential utility of targeted early parenting interventions.

Expanding the reach of preventive interventions: development of an Internet-based training for parents of infants

There are major obstacles to the effective delivery of mental health services to poor families, particularly for those families in rural areas. The rise of Internet use, however, has created potentially new avenues for service delivery, which, when paired with the many recent advances in computer networking and multimedia technology, is fueling a demand for Internet delivery of mental health services. The authors report on the adaptation of a parenting program for delivery via the Internet, enhanced with participant-created videos of parent-infant interactions and weekly staff contact, which enable distal treatment providers to give feedback and make decisions informed by direct behavioral assessment. This Internet-based, parent-education intervention has the potential to promote healthy and protective parent-infant interactions in families who might not otherwise receive needed mental health services.

Using an emotion regulation framework to understand the role of temperament and family processes in risk for adolescent depressive disorders

Although recent evidence implicates the importance of the family for understanding depressive disorders during adolescence, we still lack a coherent framework for understanding the way in which the myriad of developmental changes occurring within early adolescents and their family environments actually operate to increase adolescents' vulnerability to, or to protect them from, the development of depressive disorders. In this review we propose a framework that places the mechanisms and processes of emotion regulation at the centre of these questions. We argue that emotion regulation can provide an organising rubric under which the role of various factors, such as adolescent and parent temperament and emotion regulation, and parental socialization of child emotion, as well as the interaction amongst these factors, can be understood to account for the role of the family in adolescents' risk for depression. In particular, we posit that adolescent emotion regulation functions as a mechanism through which temperament and family processes interact to increase vulnerability to developing depression.

Child behavior problems and maternal symptoms of depression: a mediational model

PROBLEM

The relationship between maternal depression and child behavior problems has been consistently demonstrated, but not the impact of child behavior problems on maternal depression.

METHODS

Mothers of 3- to 6-year-old children (N=69) reported regarding their depression, parenting competence, attachment to the child, the child's impact on the family, and behavior problems.

FINDINGS

Child behavior problems were positively associated with maternal depression, an association explained by mediating variables: impact of the child on the family, mother's parenting competence, and attachment to the child.

CONCLUSIONS

Maternal depression should be considered when providing clinical services to children, given the potential for exacerbation of symptoms in the face of child behavior problems.

Cross-generational transmission of aggressive parent behavior: a prospective, mediational examination

The intergenerational transmission of aggressive parenting behavior was examined within the context of a prospective longitudinal study of adolescent and young adult adjustment. Thirty-nine young adults (G2; 33 females, 6 males) who had participated in early phases of this study with their parents (G1) continued their involvement with their young children (G3; 17 females, 22 males, mean age = 2.6) several years later. Data included direct observation of parent-adolescent (G1-G2) and parent-child (G2-G3) interactions as well as self-reports. Analyses demonstrated directly observed cross-generational continuity in aggressive parenting from G1 to G2 some 6-7 years later. However, the results also showed that adolescent aggressive behavior served as the mediational link reducing the direct path from G1 to G2 aggressive parenting to nonsignificant levels. The results are consistent with a social interactional model of intergenerational continuity of parenting behavior.

Family processes in adolescent depression

A developing body of research points to the role of family relationships and interactions as factors relevant to understanding unipolar depressive symptomatology and disorder in adolescents. This paper is focused on examining mechanisms by which adverse family processes may operate to increase adolescents' vulnerability to depression. The review is organized into a description and evaluation of four potential mechanisms by which families may influence adolescents' risk: (a) Stress/Support, (b) Social Interactional, (c) Cognitive, and (d) Affect Regulation. The presentation of the individual mechanisms is followed by a brief discussion of how they could be integrated to develop a fuller understanding of familial processes relevant to the etiology and maintenance of depressive conditions. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of overall limitations in the literature and recommendations for future research.

Adolescent responses to depressive parental behaviors in problem-solving interactions: implications for depressive symptoms

The purpose of this study was to explore the relations between child responses to interparental depressive behavior and subsequent child depressive symptomatology. Data were collected on 156 two-parent families. Families completed questionnaire data and participated in problem-solving interactions, which were coded using a microsocial observational system. Three potential child responses to interparental depressive behavior were examined: facilitative, aggressive, and depressive. Results indicated that for female adolescents the displays of facilitative and depressive behavior as well as the suppression of aggressive behavior in response to interparental depressive behavior were related to increases in depressive symptomatology. For males, on the other hand, the display of aggressive and depressive behavior in response to interparental depressive behavior was related to increases in depression. Results provide preliminary support both for the examination of child responses to conflictual marital behavior and for expanding the conceptualization of conflictual marital behaviors to include depressive as well as the more traditionally examined aggressive behaviors, in order to better understand the link between conflictual marital behavior and child depressive symptomatology.

Regulation of negative affect during mother-child problem-solving interactions: adolescent depressive status and family processes

Despite recent suggestions that depression can be conceptualized as a disorder of affect regulation, relatively little research has focused on affect regulation skills in depressed individuals. This paper investigated whether depressed adolescents (N = 25) differ from nondepressed adolescents (N = 25) on two indices of affect regulation (i.e., duration of negative affective states and reciprocity of maternal negative affect) as well as whether these indices are related to microsocial family interactional processes. Analyses revealed that depressed teens differed from their nondepressed peers with regard to duration of negative affective states but not in their likelihood of reciprocating negative affect. Additionally, indices of adolescent affect regulation were related to family interactional processes. Duration of depressive affect was positively associated with maternal display of facilitative behavior contingent on adolescent depressive behavior. Duration of aggressive behavior was inversely related to maternal problem-solving responses to aggressive behavior. Finally, adolescent reciprocity of maternal depressive and aggressive behaviors was strongly associated with mothers' reciprocity of adolescents' negative affective behavior.

Family relationships of depressed adolescents: a multimethod assessment

Conducted a multimethod assessment consisting of behavioral observations as well as mother- and adolescent-report measures to compare the family environments of depressed adolescents to those of healthy, nondistressed adolescents. Each group consisted of 17 girls and 9 boys. Depressed adolescents and their mothers described their families as being less supportive and more conflictual than did their counterparts in comparison families. Depressed adolescents also demonstrated less problem-solving behavior, and both they and their mothers demonstrated less facilitative and more depressive behavior during observed problem-solving interactions. In contrast, neither depressed adolescents nor their mothers demonstrated higher rates of aggressive behavior relative to their counterparts in the families of healthy adolescents. The multimethod assessment allowed us to draw firm conclusions regarding the role of supportive family interactions. Hypotheses regarding the inconsistency between self-report and observational data with regard to family conflict are addressed.

Family rigidity, adolescent problem-solving deficits, and suicidal ideation: a mediational model

Family rigidity and adolescent problem-solving deficits have each been linked to adolescent suicidal behaviors. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the hypothesis that family rigidity has primarily an indirect effect on adolescent suicidal ideation through its effect on adolescent problem-solving deficits. College students and their parents completed the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale II. Students also completed the Problem-Solving Inventory and the Adult Suicidal ideation Questionnaire. Structural equation models confirmed that family rigidity has an indirect effect on adolescent suicidal ideation through its effect on adolescent problem-solving deficits. Directions for treatment efforts are discussed.

Interactional processes in families with depressed and non-depressed adolescents: reinforcement of depressive behavior

Problem-solving interactions were observed in 86 families of depressed adolescents and 408 families of non-depressed adolescents. Sequential analyses indicated that mothers of depressed adolescents were more likely than mothers of non-depressed adolescents to increase facilitative behavior in response to adolescent depressive behavior. Additionally, fathers of depressed adolescents were more likely than their counterparts in families of non-depressed adolescents to decrease aggressive behavior subsequent to adolescent depressive behavior. These analyses suggest that parents of depressed adolescents may be inadvertently reinforcing depressive behavior. Decreases in adolescent depressive symptomatology from year 1 to year 2 were not accompanied by changes in family interaction patterns.

Family support and conflict: prospective relations to adolescent depression

The relations between family support, family conflict, and adolescent depressive symptomatology were examined longitudinally in a sample of 231 female and 189 male adolescents and their mothers. Structural equation models revealed that less supportive and more conflictual family environments were associated with greater depressive symptomatology both concurrently and prospectively over a 1-year period. Conversely, adolescent depressive symptomatology did not predict deterioration in family relationships. Depressive symptomatology and, to a greater extent, family characteristics showed high levels of stability over the 1-year period. Counter to our expectations, the relations between family variable and depressive symptomatology were similar for boys and girls. The results suggest that the quality of family interactions is relevant for understanding the development of depressive symptoms in adolescents.