The stable component of maternal depressive symptoms predicts offspring emotional and behavioral symptoms: a 9-years longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: Maternal sub-threshold and non-clinical depression and its possible outcomes on offspring internalizing/externalizing symptoms has received growing attention in recent years because of its significant worldwide prevalence. METHODS: Through a Latent State-Trait Analysis approach (LST), this longitudinal study aimed to identify a stable component of non-clinical maternal depression across a temporal interval of 6 years (measured through the Symptom Check-List-90/R) and to determine the effect of this component on children’s emotional and behavioral functioning (measured through the Child Behaviour Check-List) at age 12 years. RESULTS: LST analysis showed that maternal depressive symptoms tended to remain stable within individuals across 6 years of observation strongly contributing to children’s internalizing/externalizing and dysregulation symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The current longitudinal analysis of maternal and child data revealed that a stable component of maternal depressive symptoms reliably predicted a wide range of child emotional and behavioral symptoms at 12 years of age.