Longitudinal pathways from early maternal depression to children’s dysregulated representations: a moderated mediation analysis of harsh parenting and gender

ABSTRACT

There is some evidence linking maternal depression, harsh parenting, and children’s internal representations of attachment, yet, longitudinal examinations of these relationships and differences in the developmental pathways between boys and girls are lacking. Moderated mediation growth curves were employed to examine harsh parenting as a mechanism underlying the link between maternal depression and children’s dysregulated representations using a nationally-representative, economically-vulnerable sample of mothers and their children (n = 575; 49% boys, 51% girls). Dysregulation representations were measured using the MacArthur Story Stem Battery at five years of age (M = 5.14, SD = 0.29). Harsh parenting mediated the association between early maternal depression and dysregulated representations for girls. Though initial harsh parenting was a significant mediator for boys, a stronger direct effect of maternal depression to dysregulated representations emerged over time. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for intervention efforts aimed at promoting early supportive parenting.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender differences
• harsh parenting
• internal representations
• low-income
• maternal depression
• story stem narratives

Acknowledgements

These data are based on research conducted as part of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), under contract 105-95-1936 to Mathematica Policy Research, Princeton, NJ, and Columbia University’s National Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, in conjunction with the Early Head Start Research Consortium. The consortium consists of representatives from 17 programs participating in the evaluation, 15 local research teams, the evaluation contractors, and ACF. Research institutions in the consortium (and principal researchers) include ACF (Rachel Chazan Cohen, Judith Jerald, Esther Kresh, Helen Raikes, and Louisa Tarullo), Catholic University of America (Michaela Farber, Harriet Liebow, Nancy Taylor, Elizabeth Timberlake, and Shavaun Wall), Columbia University (Lisa Berlin, Christy Brady-Smith, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and Allison Sidle Fuligni), Harvard University (Catherine Ayoub, Barbara Alexander Pan, and Catherine Snow), Iowa State University (Dee Draper, Gayle Luze, Susan McBride, Carla Peterson), Mathematica Policy Research (Kimberly Boller, Jill Constantine, Ellen Eliason Kisker, John M. Love, Diane Paulsell, Christine Ross, Peter Schochet, Cheri Vogel, and Welmoet van Kammen), Medical University of South Carolina (Richard Faldowski, Gui-Young Hong, and Susan Pickrel), Michigan State University (Hiram Fitzgerald, Tom Reischl, and Rachel Schiffman), New York University (Mark Spellmann and Catherine Tamis-LeMonda), University of Arkansas (Robert Bradley, Richard Clubb, Andrea Hart, Mark Swanson, and Leanne Whiteside-Mansell), University of California, Los Angeles (Carollee Howes and Claire Hamilton), University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (Robert Emde, Jon Korfmacher, JoAnn Robinson, Paul Spicer, and Norman Watt), University of Kansas (Jane Atwater, Judith Carta, and Jean Ann Summers), University of Missouri-Columbia (Mark Fine, Jean Ispa, and Kathy Thornburg), University of Pittsburgh (Beth Green, Carol McAllister, and Robert McCall), University of Washington School of Education (Eduardo Armijo and Joseph Stowitschek), University of Washington School of Nursing (Kathryn Barnard and Susan Spieker), and Utah State University (Lisa Boyce, Gina Cook, Catherine Callow-Heusser, and Lori Roggman).