PREVENTIVE INTERVENTION--TODDLERS OF DEPRESSED MOTHERS

This investigation will evaluate the long term efficacy of an attachment- theory based preventive intervention, Toddler-Parent Psychotherapy (TPP), for reducing later child maladaptation and psychopathology among children whose mothers experienced major depressive disorder early in their children's lives. In the previous study, mothers and their toddlers were assessed longitudinally from baseline in toddlerhood (mean age 19.9 months) through age five years. In the current study, reassessments will occur when children are nine years old. Participants will include 165 mothers and their children; 101 depressed mothers and their children had been randomized at baseline to the intervention group (DI) (n=46) or nonintervention (DC) (n=55) group; nondepressed mothers (NC) (n=64) and their children served as normative comparisons. Measurements, conceptualized from an organizational perspective on development and an ecological-transactional model of development in children of depressed mothers, include assessments of the microsystem (current maternal psychopathology, parenting, mother-child relationship quality, and family emotional environment), current child ontogenic development on prior (attachment and self) and current (adaptation to school, peer relations) stage-salient issues, and child psychopathology. The research will be informative regarding the capacity of the early preventive intervention to reduce risk for maladaptation and psychopathology among offspring of depressed mothers into the school-age years. This investigation also will increase understanding of the developmental contributors to psychopathological outcomes in offspring of depressed mothers.