CHILDHOOD ADVERSITY, PARENTAL STRESS, AND DEPRESSION OF NEGLIGENT MOTHERS

The objective of this study was to identify major childhood events tha t were experienced by negligent mothers matched with non-negligent mot hers as well as to define the existing link between those events, depr ession of the mother and parental stress. The sample was composed of 8 0 French-speaking Canadian families. The measures used were the Parent al Stress Index (Abidin, 1983), the Psycho-Social Interview (Ethier et al., 1989) and the Beck Depression Inventory (1961). The results have shown an extreme level of parental stress and a high level a depressi on for negligent mothers. The negligent mothers had a history of place ments, violence and sexual abuse, but they did not differ from control mothers for parental breakups and nonavailability. We have also shown a significant link between childhood events, depression, and parental stress even more so for the control group than for the negligence gro up. The results are discussed in the perspective of attachment theory.