How Exactly Does Parental Depression Effect Our Children?
There is almost no feeling comparable to the nostalgia one feels when looking back at childhood memories filled with a parent’s warm smile and genuine love. Unfortunately, not all people can experience these priceless moments. In the study, “Longitudinal Contribution of Maternal and Paternal Depression to Toddler Behaviors: Interparental Conflict and Later Depression as Mediators”, researchers at the University of Iowa determine whether interparental conflicts and recurring parental depression during the toddler stage of children are the mediating pathways of parental postpartum depression and child behavioral problems. However, their data are collected through unreliable means, indicate bias, and fail to provide sufficient evidence and explanation as to why their conclusions are correct.
In the present study, the researchers aim to show that interparental conflict between parents and depression during the toddler age of children are the means by which parental depression causes child behavioral problems. They argue that both paternal and maternal depression must be considered because a family is interconnected, and one parent’s depression influences the other. Furthermore, parental depression causes interparental conflict, which creates stress for the child and results in negative behavior.
Couples were chosen to fill out questionnaires concerning depression, marital conflicts, and child behaviors after the birth of their children and when their children were 45 months. M-plus software was used to analyze the data. The researchers concluded that recurring depression in mothers and fathers during toddlerhood is one of the main pathways for a child’s behavioral problems, whereas interparental conflict is not.
Although the article attempts to provide clarity as to how exactly parental depression causes child behavioral problems, it produces results that do not take varying ethnicities into account. The selected couples were 97% Caucasian, thus the data only supports the researchers’ conclusions in relation to Caucasian families and cannot be applied to the overall population. Therefore, young Caucasian couples with toddlers would benefit the most from reading the present study.
Furthermore, the data was collected through unreliable means. The researchers are making conclusions based on personal surveys completed by parents. Although parental accounts are important, parents will not accurately or objectively evaluate depressive symptoms and child behavior. Psychiatrists should have evaluated couples and their children at least once during the postpartum assessment and the toddler assessment to ensure that the questionnaires are valid accounts.
Lastly, the researchers use conclusions from previous studies to support their data without proper explanation or evidence that these conclusions apply. For example, they claim that findings from studies exclusively about maternal depression can be extended to paternal depression. However, many factors can explain why this is not accurate; one being a child’s preference towards a specific parent. This claim cannot be made without the researchers’ own evidence or at least proper justification as to how previous studies can be directly applied.
This study takes a closer look into the factors of parental depression and their relation to child behavioral problems. Alas, the article does not convey a strong, reliable, or wide-ranging argument and rather bases its conclusions on previous studies. However, the study does provide new insight into an often ignored topic; paternal depression. Future research could possibly delve into the role paternal depression plays in negative child behavior today.
Literature Cited
Fisher, S., Brock, R., O’Hara, M., Kopelman, R., & Stuart, S. (2015). Longitudinal contribution of maternal and paternal depression to toddler behaviors: Interparental conflict and later depression as mediators. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 4, 61-73. Retrieved September 24, 2015, from http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2015-09322-001
