Maternal depression, child frontal asymmetry, and child affective behavior as factors in child behavior problems

Despite findings that parent depression increases children's risk for internalizing and externalizing problems, little is known about other factors that combine with parent depression to contribute to behavior problems.

As part of a longitudinal, interdisciplinary study on childhood-onset depression (COD), we examined the association of mother history of COD, child frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry, and affective behavior with children's concurrent behavior problems.

Children in the COD group had higher anxious/depressed and aggressive problems than did children in the control group, but this was qualified by a COD-by-asymmetry interaction effect. For COD but not control children, left frontal asymmetry was associated with both anxious/depressed and aggressive child problems. Children with left frontal asymmetry and low affect regulation behavior had higher anxious/depressed problems than did those with high affect regulation behavior. Boys with left frontal asymmetry had higher aggressive problems than did those with right frontal asymmetry.

In children of mothers with COD, physiological and behavioral indices of affect regulation may constitute risks for behavior problems.