Correlates of distress in children at risk for affective disorder: exploring predictors in the offspring of depressed and nondepressed mothers

Background: Efforts to understand the correlates of psychological distress in children frequently examine possible correlates in samples of children w ho are selected for high levels of distress. The propose of this study was to compare distress correlates in a sample with depressed mothers, and thus at high-risk for distress, to a low-risk sample. Methods: Examining data f rom part of a larger project, the association of children's depressive symp toms and internalizing and externalizing problems to maternal depression le vel, life stress, verbal ability, and the experience of a traumatic event w ere examined in a series of regression equations. Results: Results indicate d that children's depressive symptoms, rather than internalizing and extern alizing problems, tended to be most consistently related to maternal variab les, and also suggested that any experience of maternal depressive symptoms was associated with child problems. It was also found that child depressiv e symptoms were correlated with life events, but only for nondepressed moth ers, and that at-risk children with higher levels of verbal ability were si gnificantly less likely to report experiencing depressive symptoms and inte rnalizing problems than were those with lower levels of verbal ability. Lim itations: Because these data are preliminary, further research examining a broader array of variables is important. Conclusions: These results suggest the need for different models of these processes in different populations of children. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.