Current and Past Maternal Depression, Maternal Interaction Behaviors, and Children’ s Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms Cynthia J. Ewell Foster & Judy Garber & Joseph A. Durlak Published online: 11 December 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007 Abstract Relations among past maternal depressive disor- der, current depressive symptoms, current maternal interac- tion behaviors, and children’ s adjustment were examined in a sample of 204 women and their young adolescent offspring (mean age=11.86, SD=0.55). Mothers either had (n =157) or had not (n =57) experienced at least one depressive disorder during the child’ s life. Mothers and children participated in a problem-solving task, video-taped for later coding. Mothers with current depressive symptoms and those with histories of chronic/severe depressive disorders displayed fewer positive behaviors toward their children; mothers with current depressive symptoms also showed more negative behaviors with their children. The relation between mothers’ depression history and their behavior during the interaction with their child was partially mediated by mothers’ current mood state. Moreover, high levels of maternal negativity and low levels of positivity during the problem-solving task were related to children’ s externalizing problems. Maternal positivity partially medi- ated the relation between maternal depression and child- ren’ s externalizing symptoms. These findings highlight the importance of providing parenting interventions for depressed mothers. Keywords Maternal depression . Parent–child interactions . Externalizing and internalizing symptoms . Observational research Offspring of depressed parents are at increased risk for internalizing (Wickramaratne and Weissman 1998) and externalizing problems (Kim-Cohen et al. 2005). Because depression has been shown to have deleterious effects on parenting behaviors (Lovejoy et al. 2000), such parenting difficulties have been postulated to be one mechanism by which maternal depression contributes to childhood psy- chopathology (Goodman and Gotlib 1999, 2002). The purpose of the present study was to further explore relations among maternal depression, parenting, and children’ s adjustment by examining the relations among mothers’ depression history, current depressive symptoms, and behaviors while interacting with their children during a problem-solving task. Maternal Negativity Compared to nondepressed women, depressed mothers have been found to be more negative with their children from infancy through adolescence (e.g., Field 1984; Jacob and Johnson 1997). For example, depressed mothers made more guilt-inducing, critical, and harsh statements to their 8- to 16-year-old children during a conflict discussion (Hamilton et al. 1993) compared to healthy women. Offspring of parents who engaged in negative parenting behaviors were J Abnorm Child Psychol (2008) 36:527–537 DOI 10.1007/s10802-007-9197-1 This work is derived from the first author’ s dissertation, completed at Loyola University Chicago under the direction of the third author. C. J. Ewell Foster (*) Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, 4250 Plymouth Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48105, USA e-mail: cjfoster@med.umich.edu J. Garber Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203-5721, USA e-mail: Judy.Garber@Vanderbilt.edu J. A. Durlak Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL 60626, USA