The nature of mother and toddler problems. (ii) Patterns of disturbance and disadvantage

Prevalence estimates for psychiatric disturbance in mothers and their 2 1/2 year old children and the variations in prevalence associated with marriag e quality, social class and the child's developmental level are presented. It was found that both the mother's psychiatric disturbance, and more speci fically, depression were associated most strongly with child disturbance, p oor marriage quality and low child developmental level. For toddler disturb ance, the strong associations were with type and severity of disturbance in mother, social class, marriage quality and low developmental quotient.