Enfrentamento e regulação emocional de crianças filhas de mães depressivas

The current study was designed to compare negative life events, as well as coping and emotional regulation strategies among children whose mothers had depression to those whose mothers had no psychiatric history. Forty children (boys and girls), ranging in age from 7 to 12 years with at least average levels of intellectual abilties participated in the study. Children were divided into two groups: G1-Maternal depression; and G2-no psychiatric history. Individual evaluations were made using Raven and the Negative Life Events Interview. Interviews were transcribed and coping and emotional regulation strategies were classified by two independent raters (agreement of 0.81 and 0.89, respectively), based on previously determined categories. The data were compared using a Mann- Whitney U test (p≤0.05). No differences were found between the groups regarding events and coping toward stressors related with diseases and accidents. Greater use of passive waiting as an emotional regulation strategy towards everyday events was observed in G1. Data analysis showed that the groups were similar in terms of life experiences. In addition, children whose mothers were depressed used an adaptive effort strategy to cope with stressors brought about by negative life events.Keywords: coping; life events; maternal depression; emotional regulation