Effects of parental depressive symptoms and marital discord on parental functioning and parent-infant relationships
Year: 2020
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Mothers' and fathers' depressive symptoms were examined as predictors of parentally reported parenting distress, infant difficulty, and dysfunctional parent-infant interactions within an actor-partner interdependence model approach (Cook & Kenny, 2005). Observed marital conflict styles were examined as mediators of associations. A community sample of 72 couples participated with their 6-14 month old infants. Path analyses using EQS (Bentler, 2005) revealed that mothers' and fathers' depressive symptoms were significantly associated with increased parenting distress. Mothers' and fathers' parenting distress was subsequently associated with increases in infant difficulty. Fathers' depressive symptoms predicted greater dysfunctional father-infant interactions, and additionally predicted greater dysfunctional mother-infant interactions. Marital conflict styles did not mediate relationships between depressive symptoms and parenting distress, infant difficulty, or dysfunctional parent-infant interactions.
DOI: 10.25710/axrw-7p23
Author: White, Clare R.
Institution: Western Washington University
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2556931167