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Parenting as a Mediator of Associations between Depression in Mothers and Children’s Functioning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

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A Correction to this article was published on 14 September 2020

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Abstract

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.

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Change history

  • 14 September 2020

    The original version of the article requires a correction to one of the sentences. Under the section ‘Limitations’, the last sentence ‘Findings of no support for mediation was also deemed important as, for example, our findings suggest..’ should read as below. Also important were where we found no support for moderation of the mediation model; for example, our findings suggest that parenting as a mediator of associations between depression and child functioning is concerning regardless of the ages of the children, for both sons and daughters, and for a broad range of aspects of children’s functioning.

Notes

  1. First: DeRose et al. 2014 and Sterba et al. 2007; Second: Kam et al. 2011 and McCarty and McMahon 2003; Third: Morgan et al. 2014 and Shaw Group Study.

  2. For Maughan et al. (2007), Path A was negative, Path B negative, and Path C was positive after the correlation coefficients were transformed according to the above stated criteria. Therefore, conceptually, the indirect effect estimate represents higher depression to more positive parenting to more negative child outcome. Given that the indirect effect is the product of Path A and Path B, this calculation resulted in an indirect effect in the positive direction, thus failing to differentiate from studies in which the mediation is in the expected direction (i.e., higher depression to more negative parenting to more negative child outcome). Given that the relations in Maughan et al. were not significant, we conducted analyses both including and excluding this study and reported any discrepancies.

  3. Of note, when studies were excluded from analyses to address non-independence, social outcomes could no longer be included in analyses due to our a priori requirement that at least three studies be included in each level of categorical moderators. With social outcomes excluded from analyses, the strongest effect was for externalizing outcomes.

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Acknowledgements

Emily Bartholomay provided valuable assistance with the initial steps in this review. The authors also gratefully acknowledge assistance from Katherine Cullum, Meeka Maier, Yuk Fai Cheong.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Sherryl H. Goodman, Hannah F. M. Simon & Christine Youngwon Kim

  2. Department of Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

    Amanda L. Shamblaw

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Goodman, S.H., Simon, H.F.M., Shamblaw, A.L. et al. Parenting as a Mediator of Associations between Depression in Mothers and Children’s Functioning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 23, 427–460 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-020-00322-4

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