AFFECT, COGNITION, AND THE EMERGENCE OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE IN THE TODDLEROFFSPRING OF DEPRESSED MOTHERS

Visual self-recognition was examined utilizing the mirror rouge paradi gm in a sample of 18- to 21-month-old toddlers of depressed (n = 91) a nd nondepressed (n = 43) mothers in regard to linkages with cognitive and affective development. Overall, attainment of self-recognition was not related to differences in level of cognitive development, pre-rou ge affective expression, or maternal depression. However, children of depressed mothers who exhibited self-recognition were more likely than children of nondepressed mothers to display nonpositive affect and to shift affect from positive to nonpositive in the post-rouge condition . Within the group of children of depressed mothers, toddlers who did not evidence self-recognition and who shifted affect were lower in att achment security and had mothers with less positive affect characteris tics. Also, self-recognition and affective instability were related to differ differences in cognitive developmental level among toddlers of depressed mothers. Findings are discussed in terms of implications fo r understanding the relations between affect and cognition and the inf luence of maternal depression on affective and cognitive development. (C) 1997 Academic Press.