Children of Depressed Mothers: Culture & Prevention

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a second resubmission for a NIMH Scientist Development Award for New Minority Faculty (K01). The candidate proposes to use a mentored support period of 5 years to enhance her theoretical, methodological, and statistical skills to support the development of new knowledge and expertise in preventive intervention research focusing on children at risk due to parental mental illness. The candidate is a clinical psychologist with postdoctoral research experience in community violence exposure, prevention of mental health problems, anxiety disorders among African American youth, and maternal depression. The career development and research plan outlined in this application will facilitate her career goal of being an independent mental health prevention researcher (i.e., develop, organize, and implement empirically validated preventive interventions targeted at ethnically diverse, at risk youth and families suffering with parental depression). The following objectives will be achieved in this grant application: 1) enhance knowledge of transmission of psychopathology by studying risk and protective in the context of culture; 2) enhance theoretical and conceptual understanding of child mental health preventive interventions as related to reducing risk associated with parental psychopathology; 3) learn methodological and statistical skills needed to conduct an intervention trial and; 4) design and evaluate a culturally-specific preventive program for children of depressed African American mothers. The primary vehicle for achieving the above career objectives is engaging in two related studies. Study 1 is a cross-sectional, descriptive study of depressed African American mothers and their targeted child. Study 1 examines cultural and protective moderators (i.e., extended family support, social skills), mechanisms (i.e., negative parents, negative life events) and risks factors (i.e., exposure to community violence and racism) that may impact psychological outcomes in children of depressed African American mothers. Significant findings from Study 1 will be used to culturally adapt a cognitive psychoeducation preventive intervention for African American families with parental depression (Beardslee, 1997a,b) in Study 2. Study 2 consists of the adaptation of an intervention, a small open trial, and a randomized pilot study to evaluate the adapted preventive intervention (Intervention vs. Treatment-As-Usual).