The effects of maternal depression on the efficacy of a literacy intervention program

The purpose of the present study was: (1) to determine whether depression was related to mother-child interactions in a group of low-income mothers participating in a literacy intervention; (2) to examine whether depression was related to retention; (3) to determine whether there were differential changes in depressed and nondepressed mothers in the intervention group. Participants included 488 ethnically diverse families. Depressed mothers engaged in fewer literacy enhancing behaviors with their children than non-depressed mothers and were more likely to drop out of the study. Depressed mothers were as likely to participate actively in the intervention, and benefited as much from the intervention as non-depressed mothers.