Transactional models of depression via caregiver-child interactions: Evaluating conflict resolution as a source of resilience in adversity-exposed families

Abstract

Background

Youth who experienced early life caregiving adversity (ECA) are at increased risk for developing depression, which may in part reflect a heightened vulnerability to the deleterious effects of later-life stressors, including poor caregiver mental health and interpersonal conflict. Transactional models posit bidirectional influences between caregivers and children that operate over development and more proximally across interactions.

Objective

To address gaps in knowledge of bidirectional influences between caregivers and children, and differences therein based on ECA exposure, we evaluated the effects of caregiver and child depressive symptoms on their own and each other’s emotion-related behavior during conflict resolution, and the effects of their behavior on their own and each other’s changes in affect expression from conflict resolution to a recovery task.

Participants and setting

161 caregiver-child dyads (child age 6–16 years; 49 % female youth; 45 % caregivers of ECA-exposed youth) participated in videorecorded conflict resolution and subsequent recovery tasks.

Methods

Caregivers reported on their own and their child’s depressive symptoms. Trained coders rated caregiver and child positive and negative affect and supportive and unsupportive emotion-related behavior.

Results

Contrary to expectations derived from models of stress-sensitization, results of actor-partner interdependence models demonstrated positive associations between caregiver depressive symptoms and supportive child behavior, among ECA-exposed families. Among these families, only, child supportive behavior was also associated with greater increases in subsequent caregiver positive affect during the recovery task.

Conclusions

In contrast to models of stress-sensitization, youth supportive reactions to caregiver distress may initiate positive spirals that transcend interactions. Implications for intervention efforts are discussed.