Children of depressed mothers: Communication and coping

描述（由申请人提供）：父母抑郁对抑郁父母的后代有显著的精神病理风险。青少年早期可能是研究抑郁父母家庭中亲子互动的一个特别重要的发育时期，因为这一发育时期与抑郁症发病率的增加和抑郁症风险的性别差异的出现有关。为了更好地理解父母抑郁的传播机制，该研究将使用一个全球编码系统来比较抑郁的母子二代和非抑郁的母子二代之间的视频互动。母亲和孩子将进行两次15分钟的视频讨论，其中一次将集中在他们最近分享的愉快活动上，另一次将围绕双方同意的与抑郁症相关的家庭压力进行讨论。这些互动将用爱荷华州家庭互动评级系统对母亲和青少年的个体和二元变量进行编码。母亲的诊断状态，[父亲的抑郁症状，婚姻冲突，]沟通变量和青少年结果之间的关系将被检查。此外，压力和应对在母亲和青少年之间的关系中的作用将通过观察沟通方式和应对反应之间的联系，以及应对反应和儿童功能之间的关系来检验。这项研究的结果将为未来的家庭预防干预提供信息，以帮助减少抑郁症母亲的青少年后代患抑郁症和其他疾病的几率。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Parental depression presents a significant risk for psychopathology in offspring of depressed parents. Early adolescence may be an especially important developmental period to study parent-child interactions in families of depressed parents, as this developmental period is associated with increasing rates for depression and the emergence of a strong gender difference in risk for depression. To better understand the mechanisms underlying this transmission of parental depression, the proposed study will use a global coding system to compare videotaped interactions between depressed mother-child dyads and non-depressed mother-child dyads. Mothers and children will engage in two 15-minute videotaped discussions, one of which will focus on a pleasant activity they have recently shared, and a second around a mutually agreed-upon family stress associated with depression. The interactions will be coded with the Iowa Family Interaction Rating System for individual and dyadic variables in both mothers and adolescents. Associations between the mothers' diagnostic status, [fathers' depressive symtoms, marital conflict,] communication variables, and adolescents' outcomes will be examined. Moreover, the role of stress and coping in the relationship between mothers and adolescents will be examined by looking at associations between communication styles and coping responses, as well as the relationship between coping responses and child functioning. Results of this study will inform future preventive interventions with families to help reduce the incidence of depression and other disorders in adolescent offspring of depressed mothers.