Sleep disturbances in depressed pregnant women and their newborns

Pregnant women (N=253) were recruited during their second trimester of pregnancy (M=22.3 weeks gestation) and assigned to depressed (N=83) and non-depressed groups based on a SCID diagnosis of depression. They were then given self-report measures on sleep disturbance, depression, anxiety and anger, and their urine was assayed for norepinephrine and cortisol. These measures were repeated during their third trimester (M=32.4 weeks). Their newborns were then observed during sleep. During both the second and third trimesters, the depressed women had more sleep disturbances and higher depression, anxiety and anger scores. They also had higher norepinephrine and cortisol levels. The newborns of the depressed mothers also had more sleep disturbances including less time in deep sleep and more time in indeterminate (disorganized) sleep, and they were more active and cried/fussed more.     

Attributional processing style differences in depressed and nondepressed individuals

A series of four studies used different measures to assess the amount of attributional processing following failure and success. It was found that, from an actor's point of view, relatively depressed students consistently differed from relatively nondepressed students in the amount of their attributional processing. The depressed individuals reported more attributions for both hypothetical and real failure, compared to the nondepressed individuals. They also reported fewer attributions for hypothetical success than the nondepressed individuals. In line with previous findings, depressed individuals took less personal credit for their successes and ascribed their failures more pronouncedly to their lack of ability. The findings reflect a depressive attributional processing style that encompasses individual differences, both in the content and in the amount of causal thinking following failure and success. Integration of this style into the attributional helplessness model of depression is suggested. The findings are compatible with a differential self-esteem view of depression and with aspects of Kuhl's functional helplessness model of depression. Implications for depression therapy are briefly discussed.Financial support for the studies was obtained from the University of Bielefeld (Grants 0Z 2760/2774). I wish to thank Karola Bettmer, Thomas Feld, and Stefan Wächter for their participation in the collection and the preparation of the data, as well as Friedrich Försterling, Jonathan Harrow, Wulf-Uwe Meyer, and two unknown reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.     

Situational-specificity of motivational differences between depressed and nondepressed subjects

Performance on an easy or a difficult coding task for 4 90-sec. repetitions by 15 college women who showed depressive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory and the MMPI-Depression Scale and 15 who did not indicated no support for a psychological or motivational deficit in depression. Replication with clinically depressed persons is recommended.     

Affective interactions of depressed and nondepressed mothers and their children

The expressed affect of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers as measured by the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia: Lifetime Version (SADSL) and their children (1 1/2 to 3 1/2 years) was observed in seminatural situations. The objectives were to investigate how maternal depression enters into affective interactions between mother and child and how the affect patterns of mother and child are related. Fortynine unipolar and 24 bipolar depressed mothers and 45 nondepressed mothers were observed on 2 days, 2 weeks apart, for a total of 5 h. Each minute was coded for the predominant affect of mother and child. Affects relevant to depression (anxioussad, irritableangry, downcast, pleasant, tenderaffectionate) were coded. Depressed mothers expressed significantly more negative affect than did control mothers. Mothers' expressed affect and their selfreports of affect on days of observation were unrelated. Mother's and child's affects, measured on different days, were significantly correlated. Unipolar mothers and mothers severely depressed spent significantly more time in prolonged bouts of negative affect. There was significant synchrony between their bouts and the negative bouts of their daughters. Gender of child was related to mother's and child's affect, and to relations between mother's and child's affect.     

Negative and positive cognition in depressed and nondepressed chronic-pain patients

Several studies have suggested that depressed pain patients evidence more cognitive distortion than nondepressed pain patients and healthy controls. Although these studies have generally supported notions relating cognitive distortion to depressive functioning, other aspects of dysfunctional cognition have not been assessed in the chronic-pain population. The present study examined negative and positive automatic thoughts and attributional style in depressed pain patients, nondepressed pain patients, and healthy controls. Depressed chronic-pain patients were found to exhibit significantly more negative automatic thoughts than nondepressed pain patients and healthy controls. Conversely, nondepressed chronic-pain patients reported significantly more positive automatic thoughts than did depressed patients and healthy controls. No significant differences were found for attributional style. These results suggest that different cognitive-behavioral interventions might be considered for depressed compared to nondepressed chronic-pain patients.     

Evaluating the continuity of symptomatology between depressed and nondepressed individuals

Debate is contentious concerning whether depression should be viewed as a distinct category or as a continuum including overlapping normal and clinical phenomena. A nonparametric item response model was used to evaluate whether the probability of expressing individual symptoms differed between nondepressed and clinically depressed adults experiencing similar levels of overall severity. Even though depressed and nondepressed individuals were equated in terms of overall severity, differences on specific symptoms emerged. Depressed mood, anhedonia, and suicidality were more likely to be expressed in depressed than in nondepressed individuals, whereas hypochondriasis and middle insomnia were more likely to be expressed in nondepressed individuals at similar levels of severity. Such differences are inconsistent with the view of depression as a simple continuum.     

Interactions between depressed and nondepressed Latina mothers and their premature infants

The impact of depression upon mother–infant interaction was studied longitudinally in a sample of very low income, immigrant Latina mothers with premature, very low birth weight infants. Both maternal characteristics and infant characteristics were examined using a rating scale which measured feeding interactions. Results indicate that mothers who were depressed at one month did not interact differently with their premature infants than nondepressed mothers. In addition, infants of mothers who were depressed at one month did not interact differently with their mothers than infants of nondepressed mothers. There were no differences between groups of mothers who remained depressed across the one-year period and groups whose scores reflected no depression or changes in depression levels. These findings challenge previous assumptions about interactions between depressed mother–infant dyads. Results indicate the need to broaden study attention to include socioeconomic, cultural, and life circumstances of families that may have greater impact on child outcomes than single assessments of maternal depression. Such studies may lead to changes in the way services are delivered and the types of interventions provided to non-mainstream families. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Judgment of contingency: cognitive biases in depressed and nondepressed subjects

In this research I investigated whether the use of relevant affective outcomes influences depressed and nondepressed subjects' judgment of contingency. Similar to previous studies (Alloy & Abramson, 1979, Experiments 1 and 2), Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed that when the outcome is affectively neutral (i.e., the onset of a light) depressed subjects make accurate judgments of contingency, whereas nondepressed subjects show (in noncontingent situations) a significant illusion of control. In Experiments 3 and 4 (a contingency situation and a noncontingency situation, respectively) different types of sentences (negative self-referent, negative other-referent, positive self-referent, positive other-referent) were used as outcomes. Although depressed subjects were more reluctant to show biased judgments than were the nondepressed subjects, in noncontingency situations depressed subjects made overestimated judgments of contingency when the outcomes were negative self-referent sentences. Results are discussed with regard to current cognitive theories of depression, particularly the learned helplessness model.     

Schematic and situational determinants of depressed and nondepressed students' interpretation of feedback

We examined whether depressed persons' social skill deficits contribute to their negative cognitions and whether this contribution is independent of their negative schemata. Depressed (n = 60) and nondepressed (n = 60) subjects engaged in group discussions. We assessed subjects' social competence schemata with a questionnaire and subjects' actual level of social competence in the discussion through objective ratings made by codiscussants and outside observers. We found that independently of their negative schemata, depressed subjects' social skill deficits explained a significant portion of the variance in their more negative interpretation of feedback (relative to nondepressed subjects'). This suggests that real deficits in depressed persons' performance compound the effects of their negative schemata and further contribute to their negative cognitions. We also further explored findings by Dykman et al. (1989) and Lewinsohn et al. (1980).     

Object perception in 5-month-old infants of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers

Five-month-old infants of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers were familiarized to a wholly novel object and afterward tested for their discrimination of the same object presented in the familiar and in a novel perspective. Infants in both groups were adequately familiarized, but infants of clinically depressed mothers failed to discriminate between novel and familiar views of the object, whereas infants of nondepressed mothers successfully discriminated. The difference in discrimination between infants of depressed and nondepressed mothers is discussed in light of infants' differential object processing and maternal sociodemographics, mind-mindedness, depression, stress, and interaction styles that may moderate opportunities for infants to learn about their world or influence the development of their perceptuocognitive capacities.     

Comparisons of children of depressed and nondepressed parents: A social-environmental perspective

Several lines of evidence indicate that a parent's depression may be a significant health and adaptational risk factor for his or her children. In a controlled comparison, children of 133 depressed parents had significantly more symptoms of emotional, somatic, and behavioral impairment than did children of 135 nondepressed parents. Additional results suggest that the more negative milieu found among families of depressed parents was a mediator of the effects of parental depression. A social-environmental perspective helped to identify aspects of parents' functioning, family stressors, and resources that were related to children's health. Variations in these stressors and resources were strongly related to the probability of disturbance among children of depressed parents.We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Sarah Buxton, Marlene Koltin, Ruth Lederman, Roger Mitchell, and Deborah Shields in data collection and of Dani Lawler in data collection and analysis. We thank Susan Spinrad for her help in preparing this article. This work was supported in part by Veterans Administration Medical Research funds and NIAAA Grant AA02863.     

Intrainformant agreement and family functioning in depressed and nondepressed parents and their children

Abstract

This investigation examined perceptions of family functioning, marital satisfaction, and parent-child bonding in 65 families (child, mother, father) with one or more depressed parents and 26 families with no depressed parent. Intrainformant agreement between offspring and their parents across family functioning measures was examined for the two proband groups. Results revealed more dysfunction in family adaptability, cohesiveness, and parent-child bonding and lower levels of marital satisfaction in the depressed as compared to the nondepressed proband group. Analyses of intrainformant data revealed no significant differences in levels of agreement between informants from the two proband groups for any of the raters. There was, however, significant agreement between informants in both proband groups. Thus, differential reports of family functioning are attributable to variations in perception of functioning, rather than to different levels of internal consistency in reporting across raters in depressed and nondepressed proband groups.     

Attributional style and self-control behavior in depressed and nondepressed children and their parents

Do the reformulated model of learned helplessness and the self-control model apply to clinically depressed children? Are the related cognitive patterns specific to depression? Are the cognitive deficits associated with depression learned from one's parents? To address these questions this investigation examined three groups of children (ages 8–12) and their parents: nonclinic (n =25),nondepressed clinic (n=22),and depressed clinic (n=15).Children were diagnosed depressed on the basis of Kiddie-SADS interview data. Depressed clinic children self-reported more depression, had a more depressive attributional style, and had more self-control problems. There were more depressed mothers in the clinic than in the nonclinic sample. Depressed clinic children had more depressed mothers than did nondepressed clinic children. There were no differences among the three groups of parents in their cognitive patterns. No relationship was found between the attributional style and self-control behavior of children and their parents.     

Differences in automatic social information processing between nondepressed and subclinically depressed individuals

The present research examined individual differences in automatic social information processing. We hypothesized that because nondepressed and subclinically depressed persons have different interpersonal experiences, they may process social information in different ways. In this experiment, participants were asked to make judgments about social relationships after being reminded of a target person. They had to make these judgments under either a light or a heavy memory load. Results showed that when nondepressed participants were reminded of people with whom they had frequent pleasant interactions, they made a greater number of positive judgments about their social relationships than did subclinically depressed participants. When subclinically depressed participants were reminded of people with whom they had had frequent unpleasant interactions, they made a greater number of negative judgments about their social relationships than did their nondepressed counterparts. Moreover, performance in these experimental conditions was unaffected by memory load, suggesting that automatic thoughts about their social relationships had been evoked.     

Social skill in self-assertive strategies of toddlers with depressed and nondepressed mothers

The authors examined the effects of maternal depression on the skillfulness of toddlers' self-assertive strategies in interactions with their mother and with a female examiner. The participants were 110 mothers and their 26-month-old toddlers. Of these mothers, 57 had experienced an episode of clinical depression sometime since their child's birth, and 53 had had no history of depression. Toddlers exposed to maternal depression demonstrated significantly less social skill in their self-assertive strategies and more defiance when interacting with their mothers than did toddlers who were never exposed to maternal depression. The chronicity and severity of toddlers' exposure to maternal depression did not account for more pronounced differences in toddlers' skill in self-assertion toward mothers; however, toddlers exposed to more chronic courses of depression demonstrated less skill in their self-assertion toward the examiner. Toddlers who were exposed to maternal depression with a comorbid anxiety disorder did not exhibit less skill in their self-assertion toward mothers than did toddlers in either the depression-only or nondepressed groups. These findings suggest that exposure to maternal depression may interfere with toddlers' development of socially competent self-assertion strategies and may pose risks for future problems in the mother-toddler relationship.     

Dimensions of perceived social support in clinically depressed and nondepressed female caregivers

The relationship between social support and depression was studied in 165 women caring for frail family members. The Arizona Social Support Interview Schedule (Barrera, Sandler, & Ramsay, 1981), which includes 4 dimensions of availability and use of resources and satisfaction with and need for support, was used to examine 7 categories of supportive activity. Depression was assessed according to Research Diagnostic Criteria (Spitzer, Endicott, & Robins, 1978) with the Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (Endicott & Spitzer, 1978). There were no differences in overall satisfaction with received support in comparisons of depressed and nondepressed caregivers. However, depressed caregivers (n = 87) reported a higher incidence of negative interactions with others. Both groups appeared to have equal access to social support, with nondepressed caregivers (n = 78) reporting significantly greater use of those resources.     

A comparison of depressed and nondepressed disturbed children on measures of attributional style,hopelessness, life stress,and temperament

Upon admission to a hospital treatment program, clinically depressed and nondepressed children (aged 9–17 years) were assessed on measures of attributional style, hopelessness, depression, life stress, and child temperament. The depressed group tended to attribute positive events to specific and unstable factors when compared with the nondepressed sample. Group differences also were found on child temperament measures. However, no differences were reported between the diagnostic groups on self-reported depression, hopelessness, or life stress. The findings suggested that there may not be a unique constellation of cognitive characteristics in depressed children when compared with a nondepressed clinical sample. For both depressed and nondepressed groups, treatment did appear to affect self-reported depression and overall ratings of depressogenic attributional style.     

Investigating the illusion of control in mildly depressed and nondepressed individuals during video-poker play

Cognitive fallacies, such as the illusion of control, and psychological disorders, such as depression, may perpetuate gambling and thus contribute to problem gambling (e.g., R. Ladouceur, C. Sylvan, C. Boutin, & C. Doucet, 2002). Gender differences may exist across these variables (e.g., N. M. Petry, 2005). The authors investigated these possibilities by recruiting mildly depressed and nondepressed individuals to play jacks or better, 5-card draw, video poker. Across three poker sessions, participants were given (a) no choice of which cards to play, (b) information on the best cards to play but control over which cards were played, or (c) no information and complete control over which cards were played. The total amount of money gambled increased as control over the game decreased, but this result correlated with an increase in the rate of play. Depressed and nondepressed participants did not differ in how they gambled, but men gambled significantly more and sometimes made more mistakes during play than did women. These results question the role of the illusion of control and depression in perpetuating gambling. They also suggest that providing players information about which cards to play may indirectly promote gambling and provide insight as to why men are more prone to suffer from gambling problems than are women.     

Mutual regulation between infant facial affect and maternal touch in depressed and nondepressed dyads

The ability to regulate affect is important for later adaptive child development. In the first months of life, infants have limited resources for regulating their own affects (e.g. by gaze aversion), and for this reason they are dependent on external affect regulation from their parents. Previous research suggests that touch is an important means through which parents regulate their infants’ affects. Also, previous research has shown that post-partum depressed (PPD) mothers and nonclinical mothers differ in their touching behaviors when interacting with their infants. We examined the affect-regulating function of affectionate, caregiving and playful maternal touch in 24 PPD and 47 nonclinical mother-infant dyads when infants were four months old. In order to investigate the direction of effects and to account for repeated observations, the data were analysed using time-window sequential analysis and Generalized Estimating Equations. The results showed that mothers adapt their touching behaviors according to negative infant facial affect; thus, when the infant displays negative facial affect, the mothers were less likely to initiate playful touch and more likely to initiate caregiving touch. Unexpectedly, only in the PPD dyads, were the mothers more likely to initiate affectionate touch when their infants were displaying negative facial affect. Our results also showed that mothers use specific touch types to regulate infants’ negative and positive affects; infants are more likely to initiate positive affect during periods with playful touch, and more likely to terminate negative affect during periods with caregiving touch.