Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Parenting in Early Childhood: Moderation by Marital Quality and Child Negative Emotionality

A significant body of research has established an association between maternal depressive symptoms and parenting. The current study tested the possible moderating role of marital quality and child negative emotionality (NE) from 9 to 27 months among a sample (n = 561) of adopted children and their mothers. Although the data revealed direct associations between depressive symptoms, marital quality, child NE, and parenting behavior, moderation was not evident with the exception of two marginal trends. We found no evidence that marital quality moderated the association between maternal depressive symptoms and warm parenting and only weak evidence that marital quality moderated the association between depressive symptoms and harsh parenting. Similarly, we found no evidence that child NE moderated the association between maternal depressive symptoms and warm parenting and only weak evidence that child NE moderated the association between depressive symptoms and harsh parenting. The direction of effects for marginal moderated trends was unexpected and counter to our hypotheses. Theoretical relevance and implications for clinical practice are discussed