1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The present study examines whether child-care quality in group-based child-care settings moderates the association between subclinical and clinical probable history of maternal depression (PMD) and child emotional and behavioural difficulties over the preschool period. […] We also examine whether quality subfactors (Teaching and interaction or Provision for learning) have specific effects on the association between PMD and child outcome.» (p. 1211-1212)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«We hypothesise that children of mothers with a PMD, especially clinical PMD, will have elevated emotional and behavioural difficulties compared to children of nondepressed mothers, but that these associations will be moderated by child-care quality, particularly the Teaching and interactions subfactor.» (p. 1212)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Participants were recruited from a larger sample of families who participated in a perinatal study (Kramer et al., 2001). The sample for the present study included families with a child born between June 2003 and April 2004. Children were seen at ages 2 (2005–2006, N = 497), 3 (2006–2007, N = 440) and 4 (2007–2008; N = 396) years. […] The final sample includes 264 families with at least one assessment of child-care quality, information on maternal depression, child emotional and behavioural difficulties and covariates.» (p. 1212)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«[W]e found that children’s exposure to subclinical and clinical PMD was associated with elevated internalising and externalising behaviour, more specifically for the subscales of elevated hyperactivity/inattention, opposition and aggression. Importantly, significant interactions between clinical PMD and childcare quality emerged for children’s externalising behaviour, more specifically hyperactivity/inattention. Children of mothers who reported a clinical PMD since their birth (but not before) demonstrated elevated externalising difficulties, particularly hyperactivity/inattention, if they attended a low global quality child-care setting, while no effect of PMD was found in the context of high-quality child care. There was no evidence of selection of low-quality child care for any of the four depression groups. Hyperactivity/inattention might be particularly vulnerable to low quality child care and maternal depression, where the educator’s and the parent’s practices might not be adequate in dealing with the child’s behaviour. A similar (although nonsignificant) effect emerged for oppositional behaviour. It is noteworthy that moderating effects were most pronounced for clinical PMD during the child’s lifetime and not before their birth.» (p. 1214) Furthermore, «[t]he subfactors did not moderate associations between PMD and child outcomes.» (p. 1215)