Reciprocal associations between parental depression and child cognition: Pathways to children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms.

Parental depression is a risk factor for children's cognitive and psychological development. Literature has found reciprocal relations between parental depression and child psychopathology and effects of parental depression on children's cognition. The present study is the first to examine reciprocity among parental depression and child cognition, and pathways to child psychopathology. Structural equation models were conducted using data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a nationally representative sample of 3,001 economically marginalized families. Measures were collected in four waves from 14 months to 10-11 years. Reciprocal associations emerged between maternal and paternal depression at from 14 months to 5 years. Reciprocal parental depression was associated with greater psychopathology at age 10-11. Maternal depression predicted poorer child cognition, which indirectly predicted increased depression in mothers of children aged 3-5 through paternal depression, and in fathers at age 3, through earlier paternal depression. This study was unable to parse within- and between-person effects. Additionally, data for paternal depression was limited to ages 2 and 3. Findings emphasize the transactional nature of child cognition and child and parent psychopathology, supporting family focused intervention and prevention efforts that target parent psychopathology and child cognition.

Within-person pathways among maternal depressive symptoms and offspring internalizing problems from early childhood through adolescence.

INTRODUCTION: The report examined reciprocal within-person associations among maternal depressive symptoms and offspring depressive, anxiety and irritability symptoms from early childhood to adolescence using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM). METHOD: Participants were 609 mother-child dyads participating in the Stony Brook Temperament Study. Child and maternal internalizing symptoms were assessed every 3 years from ages 3 to 15 using maternal report on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Diagnostic Inventory for Depression, respectively. RESULTS: At the between-person level, maternal depressive symptoms, and child depressive, anxiety, and irritability symptoms were all positively associated with one another. At the within-person level, greater within-person child anxiety symptoms at age 3 predicted both greater child anxiety and depressive symptoms at age 15 via greater child anxiety from ages 6 to 12, and greater within-person child irritability at age 3 predicted greater maternal depressive symptoms at age 15 via greater child irritability from ages 6 to 12. CONCLUSIONS: Findings reveal novel within-person developmental pathways from early childhood internalizing problems to later internalizing problems in both the child and mother. Intervention and prevention efforts should thus focus on early identification and prevention of childhood internalizing symptoms to reduce negative effects on both child and parent symptoms.

Effectiveness of a brief adjunctive yoga intervention for short-term mood and psychiatric symptom change during partial hospitalization.

OBJECTIVE: Evidence concerning the effectiveness of yoga in partial hospital programs is limited. Yet, partial hospitals provide treatment at a critical juncture by bridging inpatient and outpatient care. The present study tested the effectiveness of a single-session group yoga intervention for short-term mood and psychiatric symptom change in participants attending a 1- to 2-week partial hospital program. METHOD: Participants included 104 partial hospital patients who participated in the single-session yoga intervention and completed a measure of positive/negative affect before and after the group. Participants, as well as partial hospital patients who did not attend the yoga intervention (n = 438), completed measures of depression and anxiety symptoms at admission and discharge from the program. At discharge, they also rated their perceived improvement and the overall quality of the care they received. RESULTS: Participants who attended the yoga intervention experienced significant improvements in positive and negative affect during the group. They did not show greater improvements in symptoms of anxiety or depression over the course of treatment compared to individuals who did not attend the group. Yoga intervention participants nonetheless gave higher ratings to the quality of the care they received. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Findings demonstrated that attending a single yoga session during partial hospitalization was associated with short-term mood benefits, and with enhanced overall perceptions of treatment. Further research is needed to determine the conditions under which participation in yoga during partial hospitalization could contribute to symptom change in this context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).