This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (58)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Pediatrics  • Child Development  • Antisocial Personality Disorder  • Child Psychiatry  • Depression  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Nature and Nurture Effects

Julia Kim-Cohen, PhD; Terrie E. Moffitt, PhD; Alan Taylor, MA, MSc; Susan J. Pawlby, PhD; Avshalom Caspi, PhD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005;62:173-181.

Background  Children of depressed mothers have elevated conduct problems, presumably because maternal depression disrupts the caregiving environment. Alternatively, the association between maternal depression and children’s antisocial behavior (ASB) may come about because (1) depressed women are likely to have comorbid antisocial personality traits, (2) depressed women are likely to mate and bear children with antisocial men, or (3) children of depressed mothers inherit a genetic liability for psychopathology.

Method  We used data from the E-Risk Study, a representative British cohort of 1116 twin pairs assessed at 5 and 7 years of age. We tested for environmental mediation of the association between maternal depression during the children’s first 5 years of life and children’s ASB at age 7 years, free from familial liability for ASB.

Results  Maternal depression occurring after, but not before, the twins’ birth was associated with child ASB and showed a significant dose-response relationship with child ASB at 7 years of age. Parental history of ASPD symptoms accounted for approximately one third of the observed association between maternal depression and children’s ASB, but maternal depression continued to significantly predict children’s ASB. Intraindividual change analyses indicated that children exposed to their mother’s depression between ages 5 and 7 years showed a subsequent increase in ASB by age 7 years. The combination of depression and ASPD symptoms in mothers posed the greatest risk for children’s ASB.

Conclusions  Studies ignoring genetic transmission overestimate social transmission effects because both genetic and environmental processes are involved in creating risk for ASB in children of depressed mothers. Interventions for depressed mothers aiming to reduce conduct problems in their children should address parents’ antisocial personality, as well as mothers’ depression.

Author Affiliations: Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, England (Drs Kim-Cohen, Moffitt, Taylor, Pawlby, and Caspi); and University of Wisconsin, Madison (Drs Kim-Cohen, Moffitt, and Caspi).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Mental Health Context of Food Insecurity: a Representative Cohort of Families With Young Children
Melchior et al.
Pediatrics 2009;124:e564-e572.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Maternal Psychopathology Influences Infant Heart Rate Variability: Generation R Study
Dierckx et al.
Psychosom. Med. 2009;71:313-321.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Risk Factors Linking Maternal Depressed Mood to Growth in Adolescent Substance Use
Cortes et al.
Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders 2009;17:49-64.
ABSTRACT  

An Adoption Study of Parental Depression as an Environmental Liability for Adolescent Depression and Childhood Disruptive Disorders
Tully et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2008;165:1148-1154.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Depressive Symptoms in Youth Heads of Household in Rwanda: Correlates and Implications for Intervention
Boris et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2008;162:836-843.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Maternal Depression and Trait Anger as Risk Factors for Escalated Physical Discipline
Shay and Knutson
Child Maltreat 2008;13:39-49.
ABSTRACT  

Maternal depression, child behavior, and injury
Phelan et al.
Inj. Prev. 2007;13:403-408.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Effects of treating postnatal depression on mother infant interaction and child development: Systematic review
POOBALAN et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2007;191:378-386.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Association Between Parental Depression and Children's Health Care Use
Sills et al.
Pediatrics 2007;119:e829-e836.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Maternal Depression and Violence Exposure: Double Jeopardy for Child School Functioning
Silverstein et al.
Pediatrics 2006;118:e792-e800.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Is Domestic Violence Followed by an Increased Risk of Psychiatric Disorders Among Women But Not Among Men? A Longitudinal Cohort Study
Ehrensaft et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2006;163:885-892.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Remissions in Maternal Depression and Child Psychopathology: A STAR*D-Child Report
Weissman et al.
JAMA 2006;295:1389-1398.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Strategy for Investigating Interactions Between Measured Genes and Measured Environments
Moffitt et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2005;62:473-481.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT