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Updated: Aug 18, 2026

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Maternal depression, adult attachment, and children's emotional distress
Valerie E Whiffen1, Matthew A Kerr, Veronica Kallos-Lilly
1School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. whiff@uottawa.ca
Introduction:
Our goal was to evaluate the impact of depressed mothers' marital intimacy and attachment security in romantic relationships on children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
Method:
Forty-six clinically depressed mothers rated attachment security, marital intimacy, and symptoms shown by their children aged 8 to 12.
Results:
Maternal avoidance of closeness predicted increases in children's internalizing symptoms over a 6-month period.
Discussion:
Avoidance of closeness in depressed mothers may be implicated in the development of internalizing symptoms in their children, possibly because individuals who are avoidant of closeness are poor caregivers.
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