Parental Depression And Children’ Behavior Problems

Behavior problems(e.g.internalizing and externalizing problems)are prevalent in preschoolers and are negatively associated with children’s subsequent maladjustment in physical health,psychopathology,and cognitive and social development.Prior studies have established the link between parental depressive symptoms and children’s behavior problems,and the underlying mechanisms through which parental depressive symptoms may promote behavior problems are characterized as multi-level and multi-dimensional.This study aims to explore the mediating role of parenting stress between parental depression and children’s behavior problem in early childhood,and whether the above relation may vary by family socioeconomic status and child gender.A sample of 116 children from a kindergarten in Shanghai and their parents was recruited for 1-year longitudinal study.Fathers or mothers reported their depressive symptoms and parenting stress in T1 when children were 3-year-old.One year later,they reported children’s behavior problems in T2.Results showed that:(1)T1 parental depressive symptoms can positively predict children’s T2 internalization and externalization problems.(2)T1 parenting stress can positively predict children’s T2 internalization and externalization problems.(3)T1 parenting stress fully mediated the relations between T1 parental depressive symptoms and T2 children’s internalizing problems.But the mediation of parenting stress was not supported for the relations between T1 parental depressive symptoms and T2 children’s externalizing problems.(4)The relations among parental depressive symptoms,parenting stress and children’s behavior problems was moderated by family socioeconomic status.For families with low socioeconomic status,parental depressive symptoms correlated with parenting stress positively.T1 parental depressive symptoms predicted T2 children’s internalizing problem through its relation to parenting stress.For families with high socioeconomic status,the relations among parental depressive symptoms,parenting pressure,and children’s behavior problems were not significant.(5)The relations among parental depression,parenting pressure,and children’s behavior problems did not vary by child gender.Findings highlight the detrimental effects of parental depressive symptoms on preschoolers’ behavior adjustment.Intervention efforts to alleviate children’s behavior problems may need to focus on families with low socioeconomic status in particular.