This paper responds to the need to understand mechanisms in the pathways of risk from depression in mothers to their children’s functioning. We systematically reviewed evidence in support of one often-proposed mediational model: that problematic parenting at least partially explains associations between mothers’ depression and children’s adverse functioning. We further aimed to understand the conceptual and method-based moderators. Eligible studies had to be published in English in a peer-reviewed journal, include data on mothers’ depression and parenting and child functioning, and have a study design whereby measurement of depression in mothers preceded the measurement of parenting, which preceded the measurement of child outcome. Overall, across the 40 papers (37 “studies”) that met our inclusion criteria, we found a significant, albeit small effect (r = .016), for the mediational model as a whole. This effect size was robust to context (poverty and ethnicity), children’s characteristics of age and gender, and parenting quality (positive or negative). The model was significant for multiple domains of child functioning, although effect sizes varied across domains. We also found support, with small effect sizes, for all three pathways in the mediational model and some support for moderation of those pathways. Overall, the findings provide empirical support for parenting (both positive and negative) as a mediator of associations between mothers’ depression and a broad range of child functioning and suggest that interventions should target samples that represent the population in terms of poverty and ethnicity and children’s gender, with priority going to interventions targeting the youngest children.

本文回应了了解母亲抑郁对其子女功能的风险途径中的机制的需要。我们系统地审查了支持一种经常提出的调解模型的证据：有问题的养育方式至少部分解释了母亲抑郁与儿童不良功能之间的关联。我们进一步旨在了解基于概念和方法的主持人。符合条件的研究必须在同行评审期刊上以英文发表，包括有关母亲抑郁症和育儿和儿童功能的数据，并有一个研究设计，即测量母亲的抑郁症先于育儿测量，后者先于儿童测量结果。总的来说，在符合我们纳入标准的 40 篇论文（37 项“研究”）中，我们发现了一个重要的、r = .016)，对于整个中介模型。这种影响大小对环境（贫困和种族）、儿童的年龄和性别特征以及养育质量（正面或负面）是稳健的。该模型对儿童功能的多个领域很重要，尽管影响大小因领域而异。我们还发现了对中介模型中所有三种途径的支持，但效果很小，并且对调节这些途径的一些支持。总体而言，研究结果为育儿（正面和负面）作为母亲抑郁症与广泛的儿童功能之间关联的中介提供了实证支持，并建议干预措施应针对代表贫困和种族以及儿童的人口的样本性别，