Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Child Executive Functioning: Examining the Mediating and Moderating Roles of Parenting in an African American Sample Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Past literature has identified a negative association between maternal depressive symptoms and child executive functioning. However, limited research explores parenting behaviors within this context. This study examined the relationship between maternal prenatal  depressive symptoms and child executive functioning within a sample of 128 African American mother-child dyads, as well as potential mediating and moderating roles of parenting behaviors in this association. Mothers reported their depressive symptoms on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale during pregnancy. Child executive functioning was measured at 3, 4, and 5 years old using the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function—Preschool Version (BRIEF-P) and the Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS). A 5-minute mother-child interaction was recorded when the child was 2 years old and maternal behaviors, including sensitivity, positive regard, cognitive stimulation, intrusiveness, detachment, and negative regard were coded. First, we hypothesized that maternal prenatal depressive symptoms would predict worse child executive functioning. Then, we hypothesized that prenatal maternal depressive symptoms would predict parenting behaviors, which would in turn predict child executive functioning scores. We also hypothesized if mothers displayed more positive parenting behaviors, then the relationship between prenatal depressive symptoms and child executive functioning would be weaker. Conversely, we hypothesized if mothers displayed more negative parenting behaviors, then the relationship between prenatal maternal depressive symptoms and child executive functioning would be stronger. We observed that prenatal maternal depressive symptoms predicted worse child executive functioning when measured by the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function—Preschool Version. We also found that higher levels of prenatal depressive symptoms predicted lower intrusiveness in mothers. Additionally, we found that lower levels of maternal positive regard and higher levels of maternal negative regard predicted better executive functioning scores on the MEFS. And we noted that negative regard mediated the association between maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and executive functioning on the MEFS. However, and contrary to our hypotheses, prenatal maternal depressive symptoms were associated with low negative regard, which in turn predicted higher MEFS scores. There were no other parenting behaviors that mediated the relationship between prenatal depressive symptoms and child executive functioning. We also found no evidence that parenting moderated the prenatal depressive symptom and child executive functioning relationships in our sample. These findings may inform interventions to prevent intergenerational transmission of emotional and behavioral problems.

Table of Contents

Introduction.1

Methods. 7

Results.12

Table 1. Mother and Child Demographics, Behaviors, and Child Executive Functioning.12

Table 2. Correlations between Covariables, Prenatal Depressive Symptoms, Child Executive Functioning, and Parenting Behaviors.15

Figure 1. The Association between Prenatal Depressive Symptoms and Child Executive Functioning.16

Table 3. Partial Correlations: Prenatal Depressive Symptoms and Parenting Behaviors. 17

Table 4. Partial Correlations: Parenting and Child Executive Functioning. 18

Table 5. Parenting Behavior as Mediators between Prenatal Depressive Symptoms and Child Executive Functioning. 20

Table 6.  Parenting Behavior as Moderators between Prenatal Depressive Symptoms and Child Executive Functioning. 21

Discussion. 22

References. 28

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Psychology
Degree	B.S.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Clinical
Keyword	Prenatal Depressive Symptoms Maternal African American Executive Function Black Child Parenting
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Brennan, Patricia, Emory University
Committee Members	Lourenco, Stella, Emory University Eick, Stephanie M., Emory University

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