1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The objectives of the current study were: [to] test whether MDS [maternal depression symptoms] is related longitudinally to more internalizing and externalizing problems or whether internalizing and externalizing problems lead to more MDS (i.e., testing transactional links); [to] test whether attending formal childcare is associated with MDS and/ or child internalizing and externalizing problems; [to] test whether formal childcare moderates the longitudinal associations between […] MDS and child internalizing and externalizing problems, and [child] internalizing and externalizing problems and MDS; and [to] test whether child’s sex moderates transactional links between MDS and child behavior problems and whether any moderating role of formal childcare may differ for boys and girls.» (p. 833)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Data for this study were drawn from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD) led by the Institut de la statistique du Québec. The QLSCD original sample is representative of singleton births from mothers living in Québec between October 1997 and July 1998 (N = 2120). [The sub-sample of this study] comprised 908 biologically related mother–child dyads at 5 months.» (p. 834)

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

First, this study confirms «that MDS was associated with increased child internalizing problems at all time points and with increased externalizing problems between 1.5 and 3.5 years. [This finding] highlights the need to support mothers much beyond the first year after delivery. However, no associations were found between child internalizing problems and MDS. [Also, no] associations were found between child externalizing problems and MDS before testing for differences between boys and girls. [Moreover, the authors] found an association between internalizing problems at 3.5 years and externalizing problems at 5 years. [Regarding the second objective, the analysis shows that attending] formal childcare was not associated with MDS.» (p. 840) The results related to the third objective «are consistent with those of Herba et al. (2013), who found that attending childcare was associated with reduced risk for internalizing problems for children of mothers with elevated MDS, whereas benefits did not differ among children who started attending before or after 1.5 years or who attended more or less intensively.» (p. 841) As for the last objective, the authors did not find significant «differences in transactional links between MDS and child behavior problems […].» (p. 842)