Maternal mental-health treatment moderates the association between psychological distress and harsh parenting: A prospective cohort study
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Objective: Parental psychological distress (depression, anxiety) is detrimental to child mental health. A key reason for this is that depressed and anxious parents are at risk of engaging in more negative, reactive and harsh parenting. While treatment for psychological distress has a long history of success in adults, less is known about how treatment for parental psychological distress may positively influence parenting behaviours, particularly in the general population. We examined the moderating role of mothers receiving treatment for depression or anxiety on the longitudinal relationship between maternal psychological distress and the development of harsh parenting (smacking and shouting) across early childhood (ages 3 to 7). Method: Using prospective data from 16,131 families participating in the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study, we conducted moderator analysis within a multilevel repeated measures model to test whether receiving treatment for mental health problems could protect mothers with high psychological distress from engaging in harsh parenting. Results: In each wave, about 7% of mothers reported undergoing treatment for depression or anxiety at that time. Maternal psychological distress was associated with increased use of harsh parenting and that, adjusting for psychological distress, receiving psychological treatment was related to decreased use of harsh parenting. Importantly, receiving psychological treatment buffered the negative effect of psychological distress on harsh parenting. Conclusion: In early-to-middle childhood, mental health treatment may help mothers with depression or anxiety to be less harsh toward their children, thereby benefiting their child’s psychological adjustment.
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High levels of maternal psychological distress during the postnatal period may increase the possibility of exposing children to a harsh parenting environment which could have lasting detrimental impacts on children while increasing the likelihood of internalizing and externalizing problems in the short and long term.
“High levels of maternal psychological distress during the postnatal period may increase the possibility of exposing children to a harsh parenting environment which could have lasting detrimental impacts on children while increasing the likelihood of internalizing and externalizing problems in the short and long term [157].”
From Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy (2024) · cites this paper as [157]
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“Psychotherapy has also been suggested as an effective way of reducing postpartum depression symptoms and improving coping with stress and negative emotions in depressed mothers [180 – 182], as well as improving the patterns of interactions between mothers and their children [157, 182].”
Background
- Authors
- Midouhas, E., & Oliver, B. R.
- Affiliations
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Midouhas, Emily
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2023-02-24
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- e0282108
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9955607
- OpenAlex
- W4321748394
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2
- FWCI
- 2.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Keywords
- maternal distress, harsh parenting, maternal depression, maternal anxiety, psychological intervention, moderation, early childhood, child mental health, Millennium Cohort Study, child adjustment
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Anxiety, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Mothers, Prospective Studies, Stress, Psychological, Cohort Studies, Parenting
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