Abstract
This article reviews psychological and psychiatric research on the adjustment of children of depressed mothers. With development of research paradigm and methodology of developmental psychopathology, a great number of studies of children with depressed mothers were conducted during the last decade. These studies in general found that children with depressed mothers were at risk for a wide variety of adjustment problems including mental illness, and that the mechanisms for emergence of maladjustment were considerably complex. Not a simple effect model of maternal depression on child development, but an interactional model with multiple risk factors seems effective in understanding why maladjustment of children of depressed mothers are frequent. Methodological issues in the studies are discussed, along with suggestions for future investigations.
