Depressed mothers as informants about their children: A critical review of the evidence for distortion.

Abstract

The claim that depressed mothers have distorted, inflated, perceptions of their children's problems has been made with increasing frequency in recent years. This review explicates the significance of the depression-->distortion controversy, introduces a set of standards for evaluating distortion claims, and uses these standards to evaluate the key characteristics of 22 studies that have published data directly relevant to the distortion question. None of the studies that claimed evidence for a depression-->distortion influence on mothers' ratings of their children met the necessary and sufficient criteria for establishing distortion. This review challenges the empirical foundation for the widely held assumption that depressed mothers have distorted perceptions of their children's problems. Issues that will require reckoning in future efforts to explore the depression-->distortion question are considered.

Cites (10)

1. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale
   Zigmond, A. S., Snaith, R. P. · 1983 · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica
2. An inventory for measuring depression
   BECK, A. T. · 1961 · Archives of General Psychiatry
3. Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory: Twenty-five years of evaluation
   Beck, Aaron T., Steer, Robert A., Carbin, Margery G. · 1988 · Clinical Psychology Review
4. Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity.
   Achenbach, Thomas M., McConaughy, Stephanie H., Howell, Catherine T. · 1987 · Psychological Bulletin
5. Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states
   Watson, David, Clark, Lee A. · 1984 · Psychological Bulletin
6. The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL): A self-report symptom inventory
   Derogatis, Leonard R., Lipman, Ronald S., Rickels, Karl, Uhlenhuth, E. H., Covi, Lino · 1974 · Behavioral Science
7. Short Marital-Adjustment and Prediction Tests: Their Reliability and Validity
   Locke, Harvey J., Wallace, Karl M. · 1959 · Marriage and Family Living
8. Judgment of contingency in depressed and nondepressed students: Sadder but wiser?
   Alloy, Lauren B., Abramson, Lyn Y. · 1979 · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
9. Child and parent effects in boys' conduct disorder: A reinterpretation.
   Lytton, Hugh · 1990 · Developmental Psychology
10. Childhood and Adolescent Depression: Child-report versus Parent-report Information
    MORETTI, M.M., FINE, S., HALEY, G., MARRIAGE, K. · 1985 · Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry

Show all 10 references

Cited by (45)

1. Maternal depression and parenting behavior
   Lovejoy, M.Christine, Graczyk, Patricia A, O'Hare, Elizabeth, Neuman, George · 2000 · Clinical Psychology Review
2. Maternal Depression and Child Psychopathology: A Meta-Analytic Review
   Goodman, Sherryl H., Rouse, Matthew H., Connell, Arin M., Broth, Michelle Robbins, Hall, Christine M., Heyward, Devin · 2011 · Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review
3. Informant Discrepancies in the Assessment of Childhood Psychopathology: A Critical Review, Theoretical Framework, and Recommendations for Further Study.
   De Los Reyes, Andres, Kazdin, Alan E. · 2005 · Psychological Bulletin
4. Risk for psychopathology in the children of depressed mothers: A developmental model for understanding mechanisms of transmission.
   Goodman, Sherryl H., Gotlib, Ian H. · 1999 · Psychological Review
5. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
   Biederman, Joseph, Faraone, Stephen V · 2005 · The Lancet

See all 781