Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:478-483
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Clinical status and emotional adjustment of children of depressed mothers
CM Lee and IH Gotlib
Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
The authors compared children (ages 7-13 years) of unipolar depressed
mothers with children of nondepressed psychiatric patients, of nondepressed
medical patients, and of nondepressed mothers in the community. The
children's adjustment was rated by clinicians on the Child Adjustment
Schedule and by the mothers on the Child Behavior Checklist. The highest
proportion of clinically significant problems was found in the children of
the depressed mothers. However, the overlap between the problems of these
children and those of the children of the nondepressed psychiatric patients
calls into question the formulation that children's adjustment difficulties
are specific to parental depression.
