Maternal psychopathology and child psychosocial adjustment in low -income, urban, African -American families

The relationship between maternal psychopathology and child psychosocial adjustment was examined in a sample of 306 low-income, urban, African-American families. Maternal substance abuse or dependence and posttraumatic stress disorder were hypothesized to have a direct impact on child adjustment. However, they were also expected to have an indirect impact on child adjustment via the mediating effect of mother-child conflict and maternal monitoring. Children (ages 9--12) and their primary care givers participated in structured diagnostic interviews to assess parent and child psychopathology, completed measures of mother-child conflict, maternal monitoring, and child psychosocial adjustment, and engaged in structured interaction tasks measuring mother-child conflict at Time l. The same measures were completed again two years later at Time 2 (ages 11--14). Results indicated that maternal psychopathology was negatively associated with later maternal monitoring and positively associated with later mother-child conflict. In addition, maternal monitoring was negatively associated with future child externalizing, and mother-child conflict was positively associated with future child externalizing and lower grades. Findings suggest that maternal psychopathology decreases future monitoring and increases mother-child conflict. Furthermore, findings indicate that adequate levels of maternal monitoring and low levels of mother-child conflict improve future child psychosocial adjustment.