PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Children of (subclinically) depressed mothers have a high risk of psychopathologies. Some of the factors of the transmission lie within the mother-child interaction, e.g., parenting. Furthermore, risk factors such as single-parent status or low social support add to the negative impact of maternal depression. As the children's behavioral and emotional difficulties already arise in the preschool years, prevention programs should be implemented as early as possible. Accordingly, this study was carried out in 13 mother-child clinics. We examined whether children of emotionally and socially burdened mothers benefit from a prevention program (EFFEKT-E) that incorporates parenting training for mothers and social competence training for children. In a pretest-posttest design, 194 mothers of 4- to 7-year-old children were included in the control group and 169 mothers in the intervention group. Outcome variables were children's emotional and behavioral problems as well as maternal parenting behavior and perceived parenting competence. Average effects and possible moderator effects of maternal risk factors were analyzed. In the short-term, there were intervention effects for children's problem behavior. Medium-term effects (follow-up after 6 months) were found for perceived parental competence of the mothers, especially for mothers with high social support. Methodological and practical implications of the results are discussed.