DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND PERCEPTIONS OF CHILD-BEHAVIOR

Two studies examined the relationship of depressive symptoms to perceptions of child behavior. Study 1 reports the perceptions of 95 female undergraduates and Study 2 reports the perceptions of 31 mothers of children with externalizing disorders. Videotapes of child actors portraying prosocial, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors were used to standardize the child behaviors being rated. In both studies, adult females rated the behavior of the boys in the videotapes and completed measures of depressive symptoms. In Study 1, female students with higher scores on a composite measure of depressive symptoms had less positive perceptions of the prosocial child behaviors, gave more negative global ratings for the externalizing behaviors, and showed a trend toward more negative global ratings of the internalizing behaviors. For the mothers in Study 2, depressive symptoms were positively correlated with perceptions of internalizing behaviors and of the deviance of the prosocial portrayal. The relationships between mothers' depressive symptoms and ratings of externalizing behaviors and the deviance of the internalizing portrayal approached significance. Finally, mothers' depressive symptoms correlated with more negative perceptions of internalizing behaviors in their own children. Teachers' ratings of these same children were correlated with mothers' ratings, but were uncorrelated with mothers' depressive symptoms. The results suggest that depressive symptoms may negatively influence adult perceptions of child behavior.