Children of depressed mothers
Subtitle: from early childhood to maturity
By: Marian Radke-Yarrow, in collaboration with Pedro Martinez, Anne Mayfield, and Donna Ronsaville.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Cambridge, U.K; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 216
Subjects: Children of depressed persons -- Mental health; Depression, Mental -- Etiology; Mother and child; Depressed persons -- Family relationships; Child psychopathology -- Longitudinal studies
Description: "Children of Depressed Mothers provides a developmental perspective on the psychopathology of offspring of depressed mothers. A primary theme is the interplay of factors in the child (developmental stage, gender, temperament) and environment (depressed mother's symptomatic behavior and family functioning) as contributors to psychiatric and psychosocial problems in offspring. Children and their families are followed from toddlerhood to the threshold of adulthood. The emergence and evolution of problems differ by mother's diagnosis, whether unipolar or bipolar depressed or well. Configurations of variables in the individual child are identified that in combination, create diverse processes that put offspring at risk for specific problems. Early depressed mother-child relationships are strongly influential. Specific affective and temperament qualities of mother and child act reciprocally, increasing risk. The longitudinal data show the nature of the connectedness of early experience to ongoing development, and identify patterns of child-to-adult connections. Findings suggest new questions and revised research paradigms."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-203) and index.