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Kerith J. Conron, ScD, MPH; William Beardslee, MD; Karestan C. Koenen, PhD; Stephen L. Buka, ScD; Steven L. Gortmaker, PhD

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(10):922-930. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.176

Objective  To assess whether a change in depression predicts a mother's change in maltreatment.

Design  Observational, repeated measures study.

Setting  National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being, 1999 to 2004.

Participants  Mothers who retained custody of a child aged 0 to 15 years following a maltreatment investigation and completed at least 2 of 3 surveys (n = 2386).

Main Exposure  Change in depression status between baseline and 18- and 36-month follow-ups, assessed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Short Form.

Main Outcome Measures  Change in psychological aggression, physical assault, and neglect between baseline and 18- and 36-month follow-ups, assessed with the Conflict Tactics Scale Parent-Child version.

Results  One-third (35.5%) of mothers experienced onset or remission of depression. Onset of depression was associated with an increase of 2.3 (95% confidence interval, 0.2-4.4) psychologically aggressive acts in an average 12-month period, but was not statistically significantly associated with change in physical assault or neglect.

Conclusion  Depression is positively associated with maternal perpetration of psychological aggression in high-risk families.

Author Affiliations: Departments of Society, Human Development, and Health (Drs Conron, Koenen, Buka, and Gortmaker) and Epidemiology (Drs Koenen and Buka), Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Psychiatry, Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Beardslee); and Department of Community Health, Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island (Dr Buka).

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