What is it about?
Children's self-regulation at age 3 years alters the direction of effects between their behavioral problems and mothers' depressive symptoms across childhood, such that maternal depression contributes to school-age behavioral problems for young children with low self-regulation (as well as for boys but not for girls) while children's early behavioral problems contribute to worsening maternal depressive symptoms for young children with high self-regulation. The behavioral problems of children with low self-regulation at age 3 years predict slower improvements in mothers' depressive symptoms from early to middle childhood.
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Why is it important?
This study demonstrates that the direction of effects between child behavioral problems and maternal depressive symptoms across childhood differs depending on the early self-regulatory competence of the child. Children with strong self-regulation during the preschool years are protected from the harmful effects of maternal depression on their school-age behavioral problems, and this may explain why young boys, who typically lag behind same-age girls in self-regulation, are more likely to show stable behavioral problems and vulnerability to parental psychopathology across early childhood. Moreover, this study shows that mothers' mental health is vulnerable to their young children's early behavioral problems but only among some families.
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This page is a summary of: Effortful Control Moderates Bidirectional Effects Between Children's Externalizing Behavior and Their Mothers' Depressive Symptoms, Child Development, May 2013, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12123.
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