Parental Depression, Parenting Behaviours, and Behaviour Problems in Young Children

In the past, research has demonstrated that parental depression and parenting practices are related. More recently, there has been an increase in research examining child outcomes as they are related to maternal and paternal psychopathology. To continue with this line of research, this study examined the relationships among mothers\u27 and fathers\u27 symptoms of depression, characteristics of their parenting practices, and their ratings of their young children\u27s internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems. The results of this study demonstrated that these variables are related significantly. Further, the results of this study suggested that mothers\u27 parenting, particularly their limit setting with their young children, is an important predictor of their ratings of their young children\u27s externalizing behaviour problems in the context of their own symptoms of depression. A different pattern of relationships may be present for fathers, as both their symptoms of depression and their parenting characteristics predicted their ratings of their young children\u27s externalizing behaviour problems. Such findings were not supported for young children\u27s internalizing behaviour problems. These findings suggested that interventions should have different targets for mothers and fathers. Copyright (c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd