Unpacking family dynamics: modeling transactional associations among parental depressive symptoms, family processes, and child outcomes

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, 2013.Research on the impact of parental depressive symptoms on the family system remains fairly scant due, in part, to the complexity of measuring the effects of such pathology within the family. Accordingly, the current study measured a diverse set of family processes (i.e., family functioning, parenting conflict, parental competence, and child internalizing symptoms and sleep problems) at multiple waves of assessment (every 2 months for one year) in a sample of 249 families raising a 2-3 year old child. Both parenting partners were invited to participate at every wave. Employing 3-level Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM; Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002) slope-intercept models with actor-partner interdependence modeling (APIM; Kenny, Kashy & Cook, 2006), results supported multiple transactional associations among the variables measured. Specifically, reciprocal relations were found between the following constructs: paternal depressive symptoms and both family functioning and children's internalizing symptoms; both parents' reports of family functioning and parenting conflict; mother-reported family functioning and parental competence; mother-reported parenting conflict and competence; father-reported parenting conflict and children's internalizing symptoms; mother-reported parental competence and children's sleep problems; and, mother- and father-reported family functioning and sleep problems. These transactional associations were predominately invariant across target children's gender, although significant relations did emerge. This is one of the first studies to examine transactional models of family processes in families with toddler-aged children, and implications for the study of family dynamics are highlighted