Depression presents risks that are profound and intergenerational, yet research on the association of depression with the physiological processes that might be associated with impaired mental and physical health has only recently been contextualized within the family environment. Participants in this multi-method case–control study were 180 mother-adolescent dyads (50% mothers with a history of depression treatment and current depressive symptoms). In order to examine the association between maternal depression and affective and autonomic reactivity amongst these mothers and their adolescent offspring we collected self-reported measures of positive and negative affect, as well as measures of cardiovascular and electrodermal autonomic activity, during mother-adolescent interaction tasks. Findings indicated that depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring exhibited greater self-reported negative affect reactivity during a problem-solving interaction and blunted (i.e., low) sympathetic activity as measured via skin conductance level across both interaction tasks. These effects remained significant after controlling for a range of potential covariates, including medication use, sex, age, adolescents own mental health symptoms, and behavior of the other interactant, along with correcting for multiple comparisons. Findings indicate that depressed mothers and their adolescent offspring both exhibit patterns of affect and physiology during interactions that are different from those of non-depressed mothers and their offspring, including increased negative affect reactivity during negative interactions and blunted sympathetic activity across both positive and negative interactions. These findings have potential implications for understanding the role of family processes in the intergenerational transmission of risk for depressive disorders.

抑郁症带来了深远的、代际间的风险，但对抑郁症与可能与身心健康受损的生理过程之间的关系的研究最近才在家庭环境中进行了研究。这项多方法病例对照研究的参与者是 180 名母亲-青少年二人组（50% 的母亲有抑郁症治疗史和目前的抑郁症状）。为了检查母亲抑郁与这些母亲及其青少年后代的情感和自主反应之间的关联，我们收集了母亲与青少年互动任务期间积极和消极情感的自我报告测量，以及心血管和皮肤电自主活动的测量。研究结果表明，抑郁的母亲及其青春期的后代在解决问题的互动过程中表现出更大的自我报告的负面情绪反应，并且通过两个互动任务中的皮肤电导水平测量交感神经活动减弱（即低）。在控制了一系列潜在的协变量（包括药物使用、性别、年龄、青少年自身的心理健康症状以及其他交互者的行为）并校正多重比较后，这些影响仍然显着。研究结果表明，抑郁的母亲及其青春期的后代在互动过程中表现出与非抑郁的母亲及其后代不同的情感和生理模式，包括在消极互动期间增加的消极情感反应性以及在积极和消极互动中交感神经活动减弱。 这些发现对于理解家庭过程在抑郁症风险代际传播中的作用具有潜在意义。