The Effects of Maternal Depression and Trauma History on Children's Functioning

Background and Purpose:  Maternal depression is known to be a serious risk factor for children’s functioning in multiple domains. What is less clear is how the experience of trauma may interact with depression to affect children’s functioning.  The purpose of this study was to understand how maternal depression impacted young children’s functioning in areas which might relate school readiness and whether those relationships were moderated by mother’s experiences with trauma.

Method:  Data for this study came from enrollment data from an intervention study for mothers with depression whose children were beginning Head Start.  Mothers were recruited into the study to 3 conditions depending on their scores on a depression screen given as part of their Head Start intake.  The conditions were Intervention, Control (positive screen for depression), and Comparison (negative screen for depression) (N=149).  Measures included the Center on Epidemiology-Depression (CESD), the Eyeberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI), the Sutter-Eyberg Student Behavior (SESBI) (teacher report ), the Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ) , and executive functioning measures from the NIH tool kit, Dimensional Card Sorting (DCS), and Pencil tapping (PT)).  Correlational analysis, multiple regression, and logistic regression were used to analyze relationships. The regression models examined relationships between maternal depression and trauma, as well as their interaction, with children’s behavior and executive functioning, both key aspects of successful school functioning.

Results:  Maternal depression was associated with children’s scores on both the Frequency (β=1.424, t=7.31, p < .001), and Intensity (β=0.31, t=6.428, p < .001) subscales of the ECBI.  Maternal depression was not significantly associated with poorer behaviors on the SESBI.  The CESD as a whole was not associated with children’s executive functioning, however the positive affectivity subscale was related to performance on the pencil tap test ((β=-.348, t=-2.395, p < .05).  Maternal depression was significantly correlated with trauma (r=.391, p<.001), however, trauma was not related to children’s performance on executive functioning or either scale of the ECBI, and SESBI. Trauma history did not moderate the effects of maternal depression on children’s outcomes.

Discussion and Implications:  We found that maternal depression was related to more frequent and intense behavior problems in children, although this did not reach statistical significance on the teacher report.  The increase in behavior problems has been found in many studies and is often related to poorer performance in school.  Why this relationship did not reach significance in teachers needs further exploration.  Some aspects of maternal depression related to difficulties with executive functioning, another predictor of school performance.  Trauma did not relate to any of the outcomes.  Our study adds to those that have found maternal depression a risk factor for behavior problems that can impact children’s school performance and certain aspects may also relate to poorer executive functioning.  More work needs to be done on understanding the impact of trauma on children’s functioning and we will discuss some of the possible reasons for our null findings.