Citation

Mowbray O, Jennings PF, Littleton T, Grinnell-Davis C, O'Shields J. Child Abuse Negl. 2018; 79: 445-453.

Affiliation

University of Georgia School of Social Work, 279 Williams St., Athens, GA 30605, United States of America.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.03.001

PMID

29547837

Abstract

Child welfare involvement has been linked to child behavioral health issues, including increased likelihood of internalizing mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, and externalizing behavioral problems such as oppositional behaviors and substance use problems. One predictor of child behavioral health is caregiver mental health. Although, there remains a specific gap associated with identification of factors among caregivers that are associated with longitudinal child behavioral health trajectories. Using LONGSCAN, we explore the effects of caregiver depression on the behavioral health of children over time. Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models showed that children with a caregiver who reported depression showed significantly higher internalizing behavioral problems over time, and significantly larger decreases in externalizing behavioral problems over time, compared to children with a caregiver who reported no depression. These findings emphasize that early interventions geared towards jointly assessing and treating parent and child mental health issues in the child welfare system may be successful at improving future behavioral health outcomes.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Caregiver depression; Longitudinal; Mental health