Depressão materna, práticas parentais maternas e o sexo das crianças: modelos preditivos para o comportamento de escolares (original) (raw)

Maternal depression is known as an adversity condition that leads to more negative maternal child rearing practices, as well as being wildly associated with more behavior difficulties for children. These associations, however, are not very consistent regarding the influence of child sex. The present study aimed to approach these variables simultaneously, with the main objective of verifying the predictive effects of maternal depression, parental practices and child sex to the behavior of school aged boys and girls. Data was obtained from a community-based sample of 101 mother-child pairs, with children of both sexes between the ages of 8 and 11 years, distributed between two groups, as following: G1: 51 pairs, whose mothers were systematically diagnosed with depression; and G2: 50 pairs, whose mothers didn't present history of depressive disorder. For the inclusion and allocation of the groups, mothers answered the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), and children answered Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices. Individual and face-to-face evaluations were conducted. Mothers responded to a General Questionnaire, related to sociodemographic and family data, to the Parenting Style Inventory, and to the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), a screening instrument for children's behavioral indicators. Data were coded according to the technical recommendations and analyzed by statistical procedures (p≤0.05). The comparative analyses showed, with statistical significance, that the mothers of the depression group (G1) reported more negative parental practices, as well as more practices of neglect, inconsistent punishment and permissive discipline. Regarding the behavioral indicators, children whose mothers had been diagnosed with depression presented more emotional symptoms. As for the comparisons between boys and girls, it was identified that the mothers of boys reported more use of negative control; and boys presented higher scores of behavior problems in general, conduct problems and relationship problems when compared to girls, as well as less prosocial behavior resources. Significant associations were identified between maternal depression with predominantly negative practices, children's emotional symptoms and low income. The covariance analyses indicated that maternal depression lost the predictive effect to children's behavior when the effects of child sex were controlled, but kept the predictive effects to the increase report of negative parental practices. Multivariate regression models showed that masculine sex, neglect, physical abuse and permissive discipline were the most important predictors of the increase report of behavior problems; in these analyses, being a boy was shown to be a more important risk factor for behavior problems than maternal depression. These results can contribute to the planning of more effective prevention and intervention programs for the general population, with a focus on guidelines on parental practices, and on particular demands of boys and girls, in order to minimize maternal and child mental health problems.