Premium
Does maternal depression predict young children’s executive function? – a 4‐year longitudinal study
Author(s) -
Hughes Claire,
Roman Gabriela,
Hart Martha J.,
Ensor Rosie
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/jcpp.12014
Subject(s) - psychology , longitudinal study , developmental psychology , depression (economics) , neglect , risk factor , affect (linguistics) , depressive symptoms , working memory , young adult , clinical psychology , cognition , psychiatry , medicine , communication , pathology , economics , macroeconomics
Background: Building on reports that parental maltreatment and neglect adversely affect young children’s executive function (EF), this longitudinal study examined whether exposure to a more common risk factor, mothers’ depressive symptoms, predicted individual differences in EF at school‐age. Methods: We followed up at age 6 a socially diverse sample of 126 children (78 boys, 48 girls) for whom direct observations of mother–child interactions have been shown to predict gains in EF between the ages of 2 and 4. We used an EF latent factor based on scores from three tasks (Beads, Day/Night, Tower of London) that tapped working memory, inhibitory control and planning, as well as a latent growth model of mothers’ Beck Depression Inventory factor scores at four time‐points, and included age 6 verbal ability as a covariate in all analyses. Results: The intercept and slope for mothers’ depressive symptoms each predicted unique variance in EF at age 6; these predictive effects remained significant when we also included: (a) age 2 working memory, (b) maternal education and (c) direct observations of maternal positive control at ages 2 and 6. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that early exposure to mothers’ depressive symptoms adversely affects children’s developing EF, and that the chronicity of this exposure may matter.