Marital conflict in the context of parental depressive symptoms: implications for the development of children's adjustment problems
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Relations among parental depressive symptoms, overt and covert marital conflict, and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms were examined in a community sample of 235 couples and their children. Families were assessed once yearly for three years, starting when children were in kindergarten. Parents completed measures of depressive symptoms and children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Behavioral observations of marital conflict behaviors (insult, threat, pursuit, and defensiveness) and self report of covert negativity (feeling worry, sorry, worthless, and helpless) were assessed based on problem‐solving interactions. Results indicated that fathers' greater covert negativity and mothers' overt destructive conflict behaviors served as intervening variables in the link between fathers' depressive symptoms and child internalizing symptoms, with modest support for the pathway through fathers' covert negativity found even after controlling for earlier levels of constructs. These findings support the role of marital conflict in the impact of fathers' depressive symptoms on child internalizing symptoms.
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Bias in cohort selection existed, with only five studies outlining inclusion/exclusion criteria.
“Finally, bias in cohort selection existed, with only five studies outlining one or both of the inclusion/exclusion criteria (Cummings et al. 2013;Keller et al. 2009;Ramchandani et al. 2013;Shelton & Harold, 2008;Smith et al. 2013).”
From The effects of paternal depression on child and adolescent outcomes: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Keller et al. 2009
Marital conflict strongly mediated the formation of complex associations between paternal depression and child emotional and behavioural difficulties.
“Marital conflict also strongly mediated the formation of complex associations between paternal depression and child emotional and behavioural difficulties (Keller et al. 2009;Shelton andHarold, 2008 Smith et al. 2013).”
From The effects of paternal depression on child and adolescent outcomes: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Keller et al. 2009
Two studies employed bias in sample selection techniques by using flyers to obtain participants.
“In addition to this, two studies employed bias in their sample selection techniques, with the use of flyers to obtain participants (Cummings et al. 2013;Keller et al. 2009).”
From The effects of paternal depression on child and adolescent outcomes: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Keller et al. 2009
Fathers' negative expressiveness significantly mediated the impact of paternal symptoms on children's internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms and emotional insecurity.
“Fathers' negative expressiveness significantly mediated the impact of paternal symptoms on children's internalizing symptoms (Cummings et al. 2013;Keller et al. 2009;Shelton & Harold, 2008), externalizing symptoms (Shelton & Harold, 2008) and emotional insecurity (Cummings et al. 2013).”
From The effects of paternal depression on child and adolescent outcomes: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Keller et al. 2009
Four papers found no association between paternal depression and offspring externalizing behaviours (age 3.5 to 8 years).
“Additionally, 4 papers (Hanington et al. 2012;Gross et al. 2008;Keller et al. 2009;Shelton & Harold, 2008) found no association between paternal depression and offspring (age range = 3.5 years to 8 years) externalizing behaviours.”
From The effects of paternal depression on child and adolescent outcomes: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Keller et al. 2009
Just five studies refer to power calculations in their papers.
“Just five of the studies refer to power calculations in their papers (Hanington et al. 2012;Keller et al. 2009;Ramchandani et al. 2008b;Ramchandani et al. 2010;Van Den Berg et al. 2009)”
From The effects of paternal depression on child and adolescent outcomes: A systematic review (2016) · cites this paper as Keller et al. 2009
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- Authors
- Keller, P. S., Mark Cummings, E., Peterson, K. M., & Davies, P. T.
- Affiliations
- University of Notre Dame (US)
- University of Rochester (US)
- Venue
- Social Development
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-06-09
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 536-555
- ISSN
- 0961-205X (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9507
- PMC
- PMC2712305
- OpenAlex
- W2010109009
- Cited by
- 37
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 2.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Social Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH057318)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- marital conflict, parental depressive symptoms, child internalizing symptoms, child externalizing symptoms, child adjustment
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