By Jenna Somers
Children of parents with depression are two to three times more likely to develop anxiety and depressive disorders than children whose parents never experience depression, and some evidence indicates that these effects are particularly pronounced for maternal depression. That’s according to researchers at Pennsylvania State University and Vanderbilt University, who are collaborating on a study to help break this intergenerational risk cycle. They seek to better understand how positive emotions develop and can predict internalizing symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, in early childhood, which could support early treatment.
Katie Burkhouse, associate professor of psychology at Penn State, and Autumn Kujawa, associate professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, are leading the multi-site study, supported by a five-year, $3.8 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Prior research has demonstrated a stronger relationship between maternal depression and internalizing symptoms in younger children rather than older children. Furthermore, while much research has focused on adolescent markers of depression, evidence increasingly suggests that impairments to positive emotions and low levels of reward responsiveness—brain processes that govern pleasant sensations to impending rewards—are apparent in preschool-aged children across internalizing disorders. Additionally, previous studies offer limited information on how maternal depression impacts overall levels and trajectories of positive emotion systems function in children during early development.
Given these limitations, the researchers seek to understand how positive emotions in the brain change for young children of mothers with and without depression.
“This study will offer unique insights into how positive emotions develop across early childhood to inform targeted prevention efforts to reduce risk for depression and other mental health conditions,” Kujawa said.
The researchers will begin the study with children ages 4 to 6 and their mothers and follow up with families one and two years later. The initial and follow up sessions will allow the researchers to study the trajectories of the children’s positive emotion systems, particularly their reward responsiveness levels.
The team will assess factors that protect against or exacerbate alterations in positive emotional development to identify high-risk youth who could benefit from treatment. Previously collected data suggests that parents’ positive emotions and parenting behaviors can reduce the effects of maternal depression on children’s positive emotions and mental health, whereas exposure to early life adversity, can worsen effects.
Therefore, the researchers will assess maternal positive emotion behaviors and children’s exposure to early life adversity at home and in the community throughout the study, along with parent and clinician-rated assessments of children’s internalizing symptoms and disorders. In addition to studying mothers, the research team will invite fathers and other caregivers to participate to provide greater insight into the contexts in which children develop.
The study will allow the researchers to understand how positive emotions develop in early childhood and test risk and protective factors for trajectories of emotional development and mental health.
“Findings from the project may offer insight into potential prevention programs that can be delivered to mothers with depression and their children, such as interventions focusing on increasing positive emotions at the individual and family level,” Burkhouse said.
Ultimately, the goal of this research is to break intergenerational risk cycles early and more effectively and promote mental health in vulnerable youth.
