SOME FOCUS AND PROCESS CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING EFFECTS OF PARENTAL DEPRESSION ON CHILDREN - COMMENTARY

Six main questions are considered: How does depression affect parent-child interaction? Are the effects of parental depression uniform? Do they stem specifically from depressions as such? Do the risks derive from alterations in parent-child interaction? Which psychological functions in the child are affected? and Why do children differ in their responses to parental depression? The main challenges include the need (a) to study aspects of parenting that extend beyond styles of immediate interaction, (b) to differentiate varieties of parental psychopathology, (c) to consider the extent to which effects on children derive from parental depression per se rather than associated risk factors, (d) to differentiate between varied types of psychological dysfunction in the children, (e) to consider genetic as well as environmental transmission, (f) to examine mediating risk and protective mechanisms, and (g) to investigate the processes involved in individual differences in children's responses.