Depression in Children from Single-Parent Families

Abstract

The study examined depression in 53 eldest children between six and ten years old who were living in mother-headed one-parent families. None of the children were involved in counseling or psychological treatment at the time of the study. Child report scores on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) were regressed on three variables, gender of the children, a self-report measure of the mother's depression, and the amount of time since the parents' separation. Analyses revealed that only gender of the child was a significant predictor of CDI scores, with boys reporting significantly greater depressive symptomatology. Contrary to expectation, neither time since separation nor depression in the mother added significantly to the prediction. Mother's ratings of the child on DSM-III criteria for depression were also regressed on the same three factors, revealing that only the mother's depression score was a significant predictor of her perceptions of the child's depressive symptoms. Results are discussed in terms of current models of the psychological effects of divorce on children.