Children's appraisals of maternal depression and responses to emotional faces in early-adolescence: An Event Related Potential (ERP) study.

BACKGROUND

Parental depression represents a significant risk for depression development in offspring. While cognitive mechanisms represent a central risk pathway, children's appraisals of parental symptoms have been understudied. This study examined associations between children's self-blame, threat, and frequency/duration appraisals for maternal symptoms in relation to cognitive control and emotional response processes.

METHODS

Sixty mother-daughter (aged 10-14-years) pairs participated. Affective processing was assessed by three Event Related Potential (ERP) components, the N2, P3, and LPP, during an emotional Go/NoGo task.

RESULTS

Threat-appraisals were associated with alterations in all three ERP components, independently of maternal diagnostic histories or youth depressive symptoms. Self-blame was associated with early attentional engagement towards calm faces. Independent effects of maternal depression history and youth symptoms were also observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Results highlight the importance of youth perceptions of maternal depressive symptoms in models of depression-risk.