Commentary: Parental Depressive Symptoms as a Predictor of Outcome in the Treatment of Child Internalizing and Externalizing Problems.

Abstract

Parental depression is a risk factor for the development of child internalizing (e.g., depression, anxiety) and externalizing problems (e.g., aggression, delinquency) (1–4). Eckshtain et al. (5) sought to explore whether parental depression negatively influences the outcome of interventions aimed at treating clinically significant internalizing and externalizing problems. The authors investigated 142 children and analyzed weekly child and parent reported trajectories of change in behavior as a result of the interventions. They found that, in children with internalizing problems, those with less depressed parents showed symptom declines, whereas children with more depressed parents showed an increase. In children with externalizing problems, Eckshtain et al. (5) found steeper symptom declines in those with more depressed patients. However, parental depression was not measured prospectively, and other confounding factors potentially affecting children’s response to the interventions were not considered. This makes it difficult to ascertain whether the observed results are attributable solely to parental depression.