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Assessing the Effects of Maternal Symptoms and Homelessness on the Mental Health Problems in their Children
Author(s) -
HarpazRotem Ilan,
Rosenheck Robert A.,
Desai Rani
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
child and adolescent mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1475-3588
pISSN - 1475-357X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-3588.2008.00519.x
Subject(s) - mental health , depression (economics) , psychiatry , anxiety , attendance , association (psychology) , clinical psychology , longitudinal study , psychology , substance abuse , medicine , pathology , economics , psychotherapist , macroeconomics , economic growth
Objective: This study examines the longitudinal association between measures of child well being and maternal posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, homelessness, substance abuse, and other psychiatric conditions. Method: A sample of 142 mothers who were veterans of the US armed forces were assessed at program entry and every three months thereafter for one year. A repeated‐measures with mixed‐effects analytic strategy was used to assess the association of children’s mental health, school enrolment and attendance with measures of maternal psychiatric symptoms and homelessness. Results: Significant associations between mothers’ psychiatric symptoms and child well‐being were identified. However, the multivariable mixed‐models suggest that increased depression and anxiety symptoms among children were associated primarily with mothers’ PTSD, and not depression, symptoms. Conclusions: These findings provide evidence of an association between maternal and child mental health and may suggest that treating maternal PTSD symptoms may also benefit children, regardless of whether the child was also exposed to the traumatic experience.