Prospective Relations Between Inferential Styles and Depressive Symptoms Among Children of Mothers with Major Depression

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective Current models of depression risk in children include both family history and cognitive models of risk; however, these models are rarely integrated. This study aimed to address this gap by examining how cognitive vulnerabilities featured in the hopelessness theory of depression – negative inferential styles for the causes, consequences, and self-characteristic implications of negative events – may increase risk for the intergenerational transmission of depression. Specifically, we examined whether children of mothers with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD), compared to children of never-depressed mothers, exhibit more negative inferential styles and whether maternal history of MDD moderates prospective relations between children’s inferential styles and depressive symptoms. Method Participants were 251 children (ages 8–14 at baseline; 51% girls; 81% Non-Hispanic White) of mothers with (n = 129) or without (n = 122) a history of MDD. Children’s inferential styles and depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline and then every 6 months for 2 years. Results Using random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs), we found that children of mothers with a history of MDD, compared to children of never-depressed mothers, had more negative inferential styles for the causes and consequences of negative events, but not for self-characteristics, and higher depressive symptom levels, across the follow-up. In addition, there were reciprocal, transactional relations between children’s inferential styles for causes and their depressive symptoms across the follow-up, with no evidence for moderation by maternal MDD. Conclusions Children’s inferential styles for the causes of negative events may be a useful marker of risk for the intergenerational transmission of depression, which could be targeted to reduce risk for depression.