Cognitive Vulnerabilities to Depression for Adolescents in Single-Mother and Two-Parent Families.

Although research consistently suggests that adolescents in single-mother families are at increased risk for depression, the mechanisms that explain this relationship are unclear. In a community sample of adolescents (N = 368; ages 12-16; 50 % female; 50 % White) and their mothers (42 % single), adolescents completed measures of depressive symptoms, rumination, and depressogenic inferential style at baseline and two yearly follow-ups. Mothers reported on stressful events that occurred in the child's life from birth until baseline.

The Relationship Between Family Functioning and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: The Role of Emotional Clarity.

Emotion regulation has been implicated in the etiology of depression. A first step in adaptive emotion regulation involves emotional clarity, the ability to recognize and differentiate one's emotional experience. As family members are critical in facilitating emotional understanding and communication, we examined the impact of family functioning on adolescent emotional clarity and depressive symptoms.

Single Mother Parenting and Adolescent Psychopathology.

Children raised in single-mother families are at increased risk for psychopathology, but the mechanisms that help explain this relationship are understudied. In a community sample of diverse adolescents (N = 385, 52 % female, 48 % Caucasian) and their mothers, we hypothesized that single mothers would be more likely than cohabitating mothers to engage in negative parenting behaviors, which would predict adolescent psychopathology prospectively. Single mothers were more likely to engage in psychologically controlling behaviors, which predicted to their adolescent offspring experiencing higher rates of depressive symptoms and externalizing disorders.

Differential Reporting of Adolescent Stress as a Function of Maternal Depression History.

The depression-distortion hypothesis posits that depressed mothers report child characteristics in a negatively-biased manner, motivating research on discrepant reporting between depressed mothers and their children. However, the literature has predominately focused on report discrepancies of youth psychopathological and behavioral outcomes, with limited focus on youth stress despite the marked increase of stressful events during adolescence. The current study investigated whether the presence versus absence of a maternal history of major depressive disorder differentially influenced reporting of adolescent stress when compared to her child's report, utilizing a community sample of diverse adolescents.