Depressed and non-depressed mothers with problematic preschoolers: Attributions for child behaviours

Objectives. This study examines the spontaneous causal attributions made by mothers about their preschool children's problem behaviour and investigate s the relationship between causal attributions and maternal depression. Design. Two groups of mothers were compared, a depressed and a non-depresse d group, while all women included identified their preschool child as havin g some problem behaviours. There were 25 women in each group. Methods. The spontaneous attributions of mothers were assessed from audiota ped interviews using an adaptation of the Leeds Attributional Coding System for the extraction and analysis of attributional statements. Results. Depressed mothers made more spontaneous causal attributions about their children's problem behaviour than did the non-depressed group; and th e depressed group perceived these causes as being more stable, more control lable and more personal to the child than their non-depressed counterparts. There was also evidence that depressed mothers made more internal attribut ions about themselves as the cause of their children's problem behaviour th an non-depressed mothers. The study indicates that the personal-to-child di mension is the attributional variable most strongly associated with depress ion. Conclusions. This study provides evidence that depressed mothers have attri butional biases when compared to non-depressed mothers. The authors suggest that their attributions may mediate coping responses and hence may influen ce parenting behaviour. The clinical and research implications of the findi ngs are discussed.