Chronic and Episodic Stress in Children of Depressed Mothers

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine chronic and episodic stress in children of mothers with and without a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) during the children's lives. Participants were 255 mothers selected according to their history of MDD (present vs. absent during child's life) and their children (age 8–14; 53% girls, 81% Caucasian). Mothers' and children's histories of MDD were assessed using diagnostic interviews, and their depressive symptoms were assessed via self-report measures. Children's levels of chronic and episodic stress were assessed using a semistructured contextual threat interview. Children of mothers with a history of recurrent MDD, compared to single MDD or no depression, experienced more chronic stress within several domains including peers, mother–child relations, and other family member relations as well as greater episodic dependent interpersonal stress. Each of these group differences was maintained after excluding children with a history of MDD themselves and controlling for their current depressive symptoms. However, only the group difference in chronic peer stress was maintained when controlling for mothers' current depression. The results suggest that children exposed to recurrent maternal MDD experience higher levels of both chronic and episodic stress, at least some of which they contribute to themselves (dependent interpersonal stress) and which is at least partially independent of the effects of children's depression. In addition, much of this stress is associated primarily with current depression in the mother, though it appears that chronic peer stress may remain elevated even after the remission of maternal depression.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Ashley Johnson, Lindsey Stone, Sydney Meadows, Michael Van Wie, Andrea Hanley, Katie Burkhouse, Mary Woody, and Anastacia Kudinova for their help in conducting assessments for this project.

Notes

¹The only variable that did not reach our criteria for normality (z < 3.29) following transformation was episodic noninterpersonal stress (z = 9.88 for square root transformation). However, because the square root transformation resulted in a lower skew statistic than any of the other transformations, this is what was used for all analyses.

²Because this could be considered a very conservative test, we also conducted two additional separate sets of analyses in which we (a) statistically controlled for mothers' current depressive symptom levels in one set of analyses and (b) excluded mothers with current MDD in the second set of analyses. The pattern of results was virtually identical to that just reported. The only difference was that the link between recurrent maternal MDD and children's episodic dependent interpersonal stress was maintained after statistically controlling for mothers' current depressive symptoms in the full sample, F(2, 250) = 3.24, p = .04, , but not when excluding mothers with current MDD, F(2, 211) = 1.91, p = .15, .