TITLE:
Maternal Trauma and Adolescent Depression: Is Parenting Style a Moderator?
AUTHORS:
Leigh A. Leslie, Emily T. Cook
KEYWORDS:
Maternal Trauma, Adolescent Depression, Parenting Style
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.6 No.6,
May
6,
2015
ABSTRACT: Current research suggests that parents who
experience symptoms of trauma transfer distress to their children. The purpose
of this study was to understand the possible moderating effect of mothers’
parenting style on this relationship for adolescents. This study differs from
much of the existing literature in that the adolescents themselves are the
reporters of their own well-being. The level of maternal trauma, use of
parenting styles, and adolescent depression were examined for a clinical sample
of 113 mothers and adolescent dyads. Results indicate that mothers who
experience high levels of trauma symptoms are more likely to parent using
authoritarian or permissive behaviors. Although mother’s level of trauma alone
was not related to adolescent’s depression, an interaction was found such that
mothers experiencing high levels of trauma symptoms who parented with an
authoritarian style had adolescents who experienced more depression than those
whose mothers were less authoritarian. These findings are discussed in light of
the larger literature on “secondary trauma”, or the transfer of distress, which
often focuses on young children, with mothers as the reporters of both their
own and their children’s functioning. Clinical implications are also
considered.