MOTHER-CHILD INTERACTION QUALITY AS A PARTIAL MEDIATOR OF THE ROLES OF MATERNAL DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY AND SOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILD-BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

This investigation examined the relation between maternal depressive s ymptomatology and the development of externalizing behavior problems i n children by incorporating mother-child interaction quality into a se ries of models. A representative sample of 376 first-grade boys and gi rls (mean age = 6.52) from diverse backgrounds (234 from the lowest 2 socioeconomic classes) and their mothers completed an interaction task designed to measure the quality of mother-child interaction. Latent v ariable structural equations analyses revealed that mother-child inter action quality partially mediated the relation between maternal depres sive symptomatology and child behavior problems even when the effects of socioeconomic status on both variables were taken into account. Alt hough this model held for boys, girls, and Caucasians, the relation be tween maternal depression and interaction quality was not significant for African-Americans, Further investigation is required to understand the lack of generalizability of the model to African-American mother- child dyads.