The relationship between parental depressive mood states and child functioning

The purpose of the present paper is to review the existing literature on the relationship between parental depressive mood state and child functioning. Three samples (clinically depressed parents, clinic-referred children, and non-problem parents and children) and four types of child behavior (externalizing problems, internalizing problems, prosocial, and cognitive) were examined. In 55% of the measures examined across 34 studies, there was a negative relationship between parental depressive state and child functioning. This negative relationship occurred more often in clinically depressed parents than in the other two samples, particularly when externalizing and internalizing problems were examined. The relationship between the two variables is discussed with special reference to causal inferences, the need for within-family research, and the need to identify factors which place children at-risk or, alternately, buffer them from the deleterious influence of parental depressive mood states.