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Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology Volume 51, 2022 - Issue 6
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Evidence Base Update

Associations of Parental Depression with Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: Meta-Analyses of Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Effects

Masha Y. IvanovaDepartment of Psychiatry, University of VermontCorrespondenceMasha.Ivanova@uvm.edu
ORCID Iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1537-0982
ORCID Icon,
Thomas M. AchenbachDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Vermont
&
Lori V. TurnerDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Vermont
Pages 827-849 | Published online: 24 Oct 2022

ABSTRACT

Objective

Meta-analyses were used to test associations of parental depression with child internalizing and externalizing problems, based on 107 cross-sectional and 127 longitudinal effects for 164,047 parent-child pairs in 112 studies published between 2009 and 2020.

Method

For each child, internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed with the same measure and source of data. Meta-analyses were conducted with random effects, multi-level Structural Equation Modeling with Bayesian estimation.

Results

Mean Pearson rs between parental depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems were statistically significant in both cross-sectional (rs = .267 and .264) and longitudinal (rs = .207 and .194) analyses. The difference between the correlations of parental depression with internalizing versus externalizing problems was not statistically significant for cross-sectional or longitudinal effects. For both internalizing and externalizing problems, the cross-sectional correlation was significantly larger than the longitudinal correlation. Using the Lag as Moderator Meta-Analyses (LAMMA), evidence of a linear negative effect of the measurement interval between parental depression and child internalizing problems was found. In addition, several significant methodological moderators were found, with most implicating informant factors. Significant non-methodological moderators included the proportion of girls in a sample and children’s White ethnicity.

Conclusions

Overall, the study provided evidence of small but consistent associations between parental depression and child internalizing and externalizing problems, including that these associations are present over substantial periods of development.

Parental depression is a long-known risk factor for child psychopathology. In their landmark reviews, Cummings and Davies (Citation1994) and Gelfand and Teti (Citation1990) first authoritatively documented the association of maternal depression with children’s developmental outcomes. They found that children of depressed mothers were significantly more likely to develop emotional and behavioral problems than children of non-depressed mothers. They also found that risks associated with maternal depression were conferred by a complex interplay of individual, interpersonal, and environmental factors.

Following these influential reviews, researchers began to quantify relations between parental depression and children’s emotional/behavioral problems in meta-analyses. Beck (Citation1999) meta-analyzed 33 studies of maternal depression and children’s problems (N=4,561 mother-child pairs). Maternal depression was assessed via standardized questionnaires and semi-structured clinical interviews. Broad and narrow spectra of children’s problems were measured by standardized questionnaires completed by parents, teachers, or both. Maternal depressive symptoms and children’s problems were moderately correlated for the total sample (r = .29) and for the school-age and preschool subsamples (rs = .29 and .26, respectively). Larger sample size and higher study quality attenuated the correlations.

Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

To better understand associations between parental depression and specific children’s problems, subsequent meta-analyses tested associations of parental depression separately with internalizing and externalizing problems. The terms “internalizing” and “externalizing” denote two broad groupings of emotional, behavioral, and social problems. Achenbach (Citation1966) coined the terms to describe factor-analytically derived groupings of children’s problems. He defined internalizing problems as involving “problems within the self” and externalizing problems as involving “conflict with the environment” (Achenbach, Citation1966, p. 10). Since then, thousands of articles have been published on internalizing and externalizing problems (Achenbach et al., Citation2016).

The internalizing and externalizing groupings of problems have been endorsed by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition (DSM-5; Citation2013) and the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC; Insel et al., Citation2010). The introduction to the DSM-5 states that “ … the clustering of disorders according to what has been termed internalizing and externalizing factors represents an empirically supported framework.” The RDoC acknowledge that their “ … five major domains are based on prior work that has tried to understand human behavior using a variety of methods such as … structural analyses of the patterning among multiple mental disorders (e.g., internalizing vs. externalizing, …)” (NIMH, Citation2018).

Achenbach et al. (Citation2016) systematically reviewed 4,870 articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 2012 through 2014, identified by the keywords internalizing or externalizing. They concluded that the many non-standardized assessments of these constructs create serious barriers to their clinical and scientific applications. Achenbach et al. recommended that clinicians and researchers use standardized instruments that are explicitly designed to assess broad spectra of problems designated as internalizing and externalizing and are supported by published reliability, validity, and normative data.

Prior Meta-analytic Studies

As part of a larger study of parent and child psychopathology, Connell and Goodman (Citation2002) meta-analyzed 71 studies of parental depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems among 38,794 parent-child dyads. Internalizing problems were defined as “depressed mood, anxiety, or social withdrawal,” while externalizing problems were defined as “aggression, conduct problems, and delinquency” (p. 751). Studies that measured either broad or narrow spectra of internalizing or externalizing problems were included. Parental depression and children’s problems were measured by standardized questionnaires or clinical interviews completed by the assessed individual, collateral informant, or both. Maternal depressive symptoms were modestly correlated with children’s internalizing and externalizing problems (rs = .16 and .14, respectively), as were paternal depressive symptoms (rs = .14 and .10, respectively). The authors did not statistically compare the correlations of parental depression with internalizing versus externalizing problems, nor test any candidate moderators of these correlations.

In a follow-up meta-analysis, Goodman et al. (Citation2011) tested moderators of associations between maternal depression and children’s problems. This meta-analysis included 193 studies (N=80,851 mother-child pairs) and measured maternal depression and children’s problems in the same way as in the Connell and Goodman (Citation2002) meta-analysis. Goodman et al. found significant associations of maternal depression with children’s internalizing and externalizing problems (rs = .23 and .21, respectively). For internalizing problems, larger effect sizes (ESs) were associated with diagnostic (vs. symptom-based) assessments of maternal depression, clinical (vs. community) samples, mothers’ (vs. teachers’ or self-) reports of children’s problems, younger child age, female child gender, low family income, and higher percentage of ethnic minority parents in the sample. For externalizing problems, larger ESs were associated with mothers’ reports of children’s problems, younger child age, low family income, higher percentage of ethnic minority parents, and lower percentage of married parents in the sample.

Kane and Garber (Citation2004) meta-analyzed 28 studies of paternal depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. Paternal depression and children’s problems were measured by standardized questionnaires or clinical interviews. Fathers reported about their depression, and children, parents, or teachers reported about children’s problems. Kane and Garber defined internalizing problems as “standardized measures of internalizing, such as the CBCL, or psychiatric assessment of depression or anxiety” and externalizing problems as “standardized measures of externalizing, such as the CBCL, or psychiatric assessment of conduct problems” (p. 345). Meta-analyses were conducted on 17 effects for internalizing and externalizing problems each, based on 1,284 and 1,157 father-child pairs, respectively. Paternal depression was significantly associated with children’s internalizing (r = .24) and externalizing (r = .19) problems. For internalizing problems, larger ESs were associated with community (vs. clinical) samples, and continuous (vs. categorical) measurement of internalizing problems.

Methodological Issues

The meta-analytic studies we reviewed found significant associations between parental depression and child internalizing and externalizing problems. However, certain methodological factors may have affected these associations.

Heterogeneity of Measurement of Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

The meta-analyses included studies that varied tremendously in their measurement of children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. For example, children’s problems were assessed as dimensional or categorical constructs. All meta-analyses reviewed above included studies that used both dimensional (i.e., summary scores on standardized rating scales) and categorical (i.e., meeting vs. not meeting DSM diagnostic criteria) measures of children’s internalizing or externalizing problems. Connell and Goodman (Citation2002) and Kane and Garber (Citation2004) tested this variable as moderators in their analyses. Both studies found that effects of parental depression on children’s internalizing problems were stronger when internalizing problems were measured as a dimensional construct. Connell and Goodman (Citation2002) also found this for children’s externalizing problems, whereas Kane and Garber (Citation2004) did not.

Previous meta-analyses also combined studies that used both narrow- and broad-spectrum assessment instruments. For children’s internalizing problems, they combined studies that measured internalizing as a narrow-spectrum construct of anxiety, depression, or social withdrawal with studies that combined all three constructs into a broad-spectrum construct. Similarly, for children’s externalizing problems, they combined studies that measured externalizing as a narrow-spectrum construct of aggression, delinquency, or conduct problems, with studies that combined these three constructs into a broad-spectrum construct. The effect sizes were thus calculated in relation to vastly different constructs of psychopathology.

Another methodological challenge affected comparisons of effect sizes for internalizing and externalizing problems. Meta-analyses that conducted these comparisons combined studies where internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed for same or different parent-child pairs. For example, Connell and Goodman (Citation2002) combined 57 studies that assessed internalizing and externalizing problems on the same parent-child pairs, with 33 studies that assessed only internalizing problems and 27 studies that assessed only externalizing problems. When comparing the meta-analytic effect sizes for internalizing and externalizing problems, some of the compared effect sizes were based on the same parent-child pairs whereas others were based on different parent-child pairs.

The heterogeneity of measurements of children’s problems that were based on dimensional versus categorical and narrow- versus broad-spectrum assessment instruments and that were obtained for same or different parent-child pairs have made it difficult to determine and compare the meta-analytic effect sizes accurately.

Not Addressing Temporal Relations between Parental Depression and Children’s Problems

Previous meta-analyses also did not address the temporal relations between parental depression and children’s problems. For example, they did not control for whether the associations between parental depression and children’s problems were based on cross-sectional or longitudinal data. Not only do longitudinal analyses introduce passage of time as an additional source of variance in comparison to cross-sectional analyses, but cross-sectional and longitudinal correlations between parental depression and children’s problems may reflect different parent-child processes. For example, two prospective birth cohort studies looked at whether the timing of parental depression was associated with child emotional/behavioral problems in late childhood/early adolescence (Luoma et al., Citation2001; Naicker et al., Citation2012). Both studies found that parental depression that occurred concurrently with children’s emotional/behavioral problems in late childhood/late adolescence was significantly associated with the problems. Both studies also found that parental depression that occurred at some but not all prior assessment intervals was also significantly associated with children’s problems. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal patterns were informative, and the inconsistency of the longitudinal findings across assessment intervals indicated the complexity of the parent-child associations over time.

Furthermore, previous meta-analytic studies did not test whether the length of assessment intervals between parental depression and children’s problems affected their association. However, this interval may be important. Luoma et al. (Citation2001) found that across several tested models and outcomes, maternal depression during the prenatal period was a more robust and consistent predictor of child emotional/behavioral problems at ages 8 to 9 than maternal depression during the postnatal or concurrent periods. Naicker et al. (Citation2012) found that maternal depression in early childhood was a significant predictor of child depression at ages 12 to 13, but maternal depression in middle and late childhood was not. Both studies thus showed that longer assessment intervals yielded stronger associations than shorter intervals between parental depression and children’s problems in late childhood/early adolescence. However, Mikkonen et al. (Citation2016) found that exposure to parental depression in early versus late childhood conferred the same degree of risk for child depression at ages 15 to 20. Taken together, these results seem confusing, as longer assessment intervals might be expected to yield lower correlations between parental depression and children’s problems. The findings by Luoma et al. and Naicker et al. that longer assessment intervals yielded stronger correlations between parental depression and children’s problems than shorter intervals may indicate critical developmental periods during which exposure to parental depression has especially strong effects on children. Because many forms of depression are recurrent (e.g., Klein & Allmann, Citation2014), longer measurement intervals may also capture greater cumulative effects of parental depression over the course of children’s development.

The Present Study

Our primary purpose was to rigorously test associations of parental depression with children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. To operationalize criteria for internalizing and externalizing problems, we included studies that used any of the six broad-spectrum, psychometrically sound, standardized and normed measures of internalizing and externalizing groupings identified by the Achenbach et al. (Citation2016) review: The Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA; Achenbach & Rescorla, Citation2000, Citation2001); Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC; Reynolds & Kamphaus, Citation1992); Clinical Assessment of Behavior (CAB; Bracken & Howell, Citation2004); Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (ITSEA; Carter & Briggs-Gowan, Citation2006); Personality Inventory for Children (PIC; Lachar & Gruber, Citation2004); and Social Skills Rating System (SSRS; Gresham & Elliot, Citation1990).

To further enhance the methodological rigor of our analyses, we also applied new statistical procedures that were developed subsequent to the meta-analyses we reviewed. Specifically, we used random-effects meta-analyses with Bayesian estimation implemented in the framework of structural equation modeling. Random-effects meta-analyses account for the heterogeneity of effect sizes, which is ubiquitous in the psychological sciences. The meta-analyses are based on the assumption that observed effect sizes are randomly sampled from an underlying distribution of true effect sizes, and model the variance of this underlying distribution (Borenstein et al., Citation2010). In contrast, fixed-effects meta-analyses assume that observed effect sizes reflect one single true effect size and fail to model this variance. Bayesian estimation provides multiple advantages over frequentist estimation in meta-analyses (Steel & Kammeyer-Mueller, Citation2008; Sutton & Abrams, Citation2001; Vize et al., Citation2019). One advantage is that Bayesian estimation enables researchers to incorporate current knowledge into predictive equations, and to adjust the equations based on changing knowledge. Bayesian estimation also offers dynamic and flexible approaches to the quantification of uncertainty in parameter estimation. Random effects meta-analyses and Bayesian estimation thus advance meta-analyses by offering more power and accuracy in the estimation of meta-analytic effect sizes than fixed-effects meta-analyses and frequentist estimation.

Our second purpose was to rigorously compare associations of parental depression with children’s internalizing versus externalizing problems. To conduct precise comparisons between effect sizes for internalizing and externalizing problems, we included only studies where the associations of parental depression with both internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed with the same measure and source of data for each child.

Our third purpose was to advance the understanding of temporal relations between parental depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. We compared the strength of associations between parental depression and children’s problems for cross-sectional and longitudinal effects. We also used a new meta-analytic approach to determine the effect of the length of assessment interval (lag) on the relation between parental depression and children’s problems, Lag as Moderator Meta-Analysis (LAMMA; Card, Citation2019). LAMMA is a versatile meta-analytic approach that can be implemented as a fixed or random effects model and can test linear and non-linear effects of the lag. We implemented LAMMA in a random effects model, and estimated lag using a variety of nonlinear models, given that rates of change may differ at different developmental stages (e.g., Grimm et al., Citation2011; Hayes et al., Citation2007). Our research questions were as follows:

  1. What is the overall strength of associations between parental depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems, when both kinds of problems are measured in the same standardized way for the same children and are analyzed via meta-analytic procedures?

  2. Does the strength of associations between parental depression and children’s problems differ for internalizing versus externalizing problems?

  3. Does the strength of associations of parental depression with children’s internalizing and externalizing problems differ significantly between cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses?

  4. Does the measurement interval between parental depression and children’s problems influence their associations over time independently of children’s age?

Method

Selection of Articles

We identified articles that reported associations between parental depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems and that were published between 2009 and 2020. We selected 2009 as our starting point because 2008 was the last publication year of articles that reported correlations of parental depression with both internalizing and externalizing problems in the Goodman et al. (Citation2011) meta-analysis, and we wanted to avoid redundancy with that meta-analysis. summarizes our article selection procedures. We searched PsycInfo, PubMed, and Web of Science data bases for articles meeting the following criteria, consistent with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Moher et al., Citation2009):

Figure 1. Article selection procedures.

Figure 1. Article selection procedures.

  1. Identified via the search terms “internalizing,” “externalizing,” and “parental depression” (or “depressive symptoms,” “depressive disorders,” “depressed mood”).

  2. Used measures of internalizing and externalizing that:

    1. assessed a broad spectrum of children’s problems;

    2. were standardized on large samples of children who were demographically appropriate for the target population;

    3. had published reliability and validity data;

    4. had published norms.

  3. Used the same instrument to measure both externalizing and internalizing problems for each child.

  4. Reported quantitative associations of children’s internalizing and externalizing problems with parental depression, which was defined as depressive symptoms, depressive disorders, or depressed mood, but excluded bipolar disorder.

    1. These quantitative associations were not yielded by mixture analytic methods (e.g., growth or trajectory analyses), as mixture methods yield parameters that are difficult to compare with parameters yielded by purely variable-centered methods.

  5. Were published in English, because all our coders needed to read the articles closely.

  6. Were published in peer-reviewed journals from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2020.

  7. Were not reports of instrument development, meta-analyses, or individual cases.

  8. Reported data for children ages 1.5 to 18 years.

  9. Had ≥100 parent-child pairs. We omitted studies with N < 100 pairs to ensure that all included studies had sufficient statistical power, because Kjaergard et al. (Citation2001) found that studies with smaller sample sizes tend to be of poorer methodological quality, as well as extensive findings of detrimental effects of small sample sizes on the accuracy of meta-analytic effect estimates (Dechartres et al., Citation2013, Citation2014; Levine et al., Citation2009; Nüesch et al., Citation2010).

Information Extracted from Studies

Coders trained by one of the senior coauthors independently coded the studies. The coders extracted the following information from each study. Child variables: age, gender, and ethnicity (African/African descent vs. other; Asian/Asian descent vs. other; Latino(a)/Latino(a) descent vs. other; White European vs. other; White North American vs. other; White Other (Australian, New Zealander, South African) vs. other; Middle Eastern vs. other; Native American vs. other; Mixed vs. Other). Parent variables: parental role (mother vs. other; father vs. other; mother or father vs. other). Study variables: design (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal); sample size (N); sample type (school vs. other; outpatient mental health clinic vs. other; general population vs. other; medical vs. other); informant for children’s problems (parent vs. other; teacher vs. other; self vs. other); informant consistency (i.e., same vs. different informant for parental depression and children’s problems); and length of follow-up between assessment of parental depression and children’s problems (for longitudinal effects only).

One hundred and twelve studies met our search criteria. They included 40 studies that yielded more than one ES (range: 2–22 ESs per study). The following ES statistics were extracted: 183 Pearson rs (82 cross-sectional/101 longitudinal), 24 standardized betas from multiple regression analyses (13 cross-sectional/11 longitudinal), 13 odds ratios (6 cross-sectional/7 longitudinal), and 14 other (6 cross-sectional/8 longitudinal; e.g., t-tests, ANOVA/ANCOVA F-tests, unstandardized betas). Coders transformed all non-Pearson r statistics into Pearson rs, using established procedures (Card, Citation2012; Rosenthal et al., Citation2000).

Inter-rater Reliability

To test the reliability of our coding procedures, we randomly selected 20 studies that yielded 8 cross-sectional and 13 longitudinal effects. Selected studies that were originally coded by two research assistants (KM and BG) were independently recoded by another research assistant (JC). Separately for cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, we tested interrater agreement for the following study characteristics: (a) child age (cross-sectional intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 1.00, longitudinal ICC = .989); (b) N (cross-sectional ICC = .943, longitudinal ICC = .997); (c) magnitude of original statistic for internalizing (cross-sectional ICC = 1.00, longitudinal ICC = .948), (d) magnitude of original statistic for externalizing (cross-sectional ICC = 1.00, longitudinal ICC = .815), (e) if recoded to Pearson r, magnitude of r for internalizing (cross-sectional ICC = 1.00; longitudinal ICC = .982), (f) if recoded to Pearson r, magnitude of r for externalizing (cross-sectional ICC = 1.00; longitudinal ICC = .91), (g) type of original statistic (cross-sectional agreement = 60%, longitudinal agreement = 100%), (h) type of assessment instrument for parental depression (cross-sectional agreement = 100%; longitudinal agreement = 100%), (i) type of assessment instrument for child problems (cross-sectional agreement = 100%; longitudinal agreement = 100%), and (j) consistency of informant for parental depression and child problems (cross-sectional agreement = 88%; longitudinal agreement = 92%). For (g) - (j), we computed the raw percentage of agreement because raters could choose only one out of several possibilities.

Because inter-rater agreement for type of original statistic for cross-sectional studies was only 60%, we reviewed coding of this variable and found that one coder misunderstood that the treatment of standardized regression coefficients as Pearson rs (Bowman, Citation2012; Peterson & Brown, Citation2005) applied to the coding of ESs but not to article characteristics. With this correction, the inter-rater r rose to 1.00.

Data Preparation and Analyses

We applied Fisher’s z-transformation to the Pearson rs (Zr = ½ln (1+r/1-r)), and calculated standard errors of the transformed correlations SEzr = 1/√(N-3) (Hedges & Olkin, Citation1985; Schulze, Citation2004). To increase the precision of ES estimates, we used sample size weighting, as recommended by Card (Citation2012). For each study, we calculated a weight (Wi) from the standard error of the z-transformed ES estimate (SEzr): Wi = 1/(SEzr)2.

We implemented all analyses under the random effects model. Random effects models assume that selected studies are sampled randomly from the population of studies of the tested effects, while fixed effects models do not make this assumption. Consequently, random effects models assume that selected studies represent a distribution of true ESs, while fixed effects models assume that they represent a single true ES. Given these assumptions, random effects models control for systematic, study-level influences on ESs, whereas fixed effects models do not (Raudenbush, Citation2009). We selected the random effects framework because we could imagine numerous nonrandom study-level factors affecting associations of parental depression and children’s problems (e.g., sampling, measurement, cultural factors).

Meta-analyses were conducted in the framework of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) (Card, Citation2012; Cheung, Citation2008) using Mplus 8.7 (Muthén & Muthén, Citation2021). Because we included more than one effect from several studies, we used multi-level modeling to account for the non-independence of effects yielded by the same studies. Cross-sectional and longitudinal effects were analyzed separately. Between-study variance was modeled as a random slope intercept. The ESs, intercepts, and moderators of each study were multiplied by the square root of the sample-size weight (Wi) described earlier. We used Bayesian estimation with Mplus defaults (e.g., two-chain estimation, model-based burn-in and uninformative priors).

To determine the effect of time lag on the relation between parental depression and children’s problems, we used Card’s (Citation2019) LAMMA approach. We implemented LAMMA as a random effects model, and tested its linear, quadratic, cubic, and quartic functions. Lag was weighted by study sample size and mean-centered to avoid multi-collinearity (Card, Citation2019). The multiplicative terms for lag that were used for non-linear modeling were calculated on the mean-centered lag and divided by 100 to overcome Mplus variance restrictions. Supplemental Appendix B presents our annotated Mplus code for the main meta-analyses and LAMMA.

Results

Studies Included in the Meta-analyses

Study Characteristics

Supplemental Appendix A presents descriptive information for the 112 studies included in the meta-analyses. The studies yielded 234 ESs (107 cross-sectional and 127 longitudinal) for 164,047 parent-child pairs (50,312 cross-sectional and 113,735 longitudinal).

Twenty-eight studies yielded both cross-sectional and longitudinal ESs. For longitudinal ESs, the average interval between ratings of parental depression and children’s problems was 41.5 months (range = 3 to 141 months; SD = 28.3).

For the majority of ESs, the same informant provided ratings about parental depression and children’s problems (78 (72.9%) for cross-sectional and 103 (81.1%) for longitudinal). Parents were the primary informants about children’s problems, with 86 (80.4%) cross-sectional and 118 (92.9%) longitudinal ESs based on their reports. For cross-sectional analyses, 15 (14.0%) additional ESs were based on children’s self-ratings, 5 (4.7%) on aggregated parent and child ratings, and 1 (0.9%) on teacher ratings. For longitudinal analyses, 5 (3.9%) additional ESs were based on teacher ratings, 3 (2.4%) on aggregated ratings (2 parent-teacher and 1 parent-parent), and 1 (0.8%) on children’s self-ratings.

ESs were calculated primarily in relation to maternal depression. For cross-sectional analyses, effects were based on measures of maternal (66 or 61.7%), paternal (20 or 18.7%), combined maternal-paternal (2 or 1.9%), or parental role unspecified (19 or 17.8%) depression. For longitudinal analyses, they were based on measures of maternal (87 or 68.5%), paternal (34 or 26.8%), combined maternal-paternal (2 or 1.6%), or parental role unspecified (4 or 3.1%) depression.

Sample Characteristics

ESs were calculated on samples of children that averaged 49% female (SD = 10.1; range = 0 to 100%). Children’s ages when assessed for internalizing and externalizing ranged from 0 to 17 years (M = 8.5, SD = 4.7) for cross-sectional, and from 0 to 14 (M = 5.52, SD = 3.9) for longitudinal analyses.

Regarding ethnicity/nationality, the majority of the 234 effects were calculated on samples that included White children (82 or 35.0% European; 167 or 71.4% North American; 8 or 3.4% Australian, South African, or New Zealander). In addition, 140 (59.8%) included participants who were African/African descent, 69 (29.5%) who were Asian/Asian descent, 86 (36.8%) participants who were Latin American/Latin American descent, 13 (5.6%) who were Middle Eastern/Middle Eastern descent, 54 (23.1%) who were Native American, and 146 (62.4%) who were of another or mixed ethnicity.

Measures of Parental Depression and Children’s Problems

All effects came from studies that used self-report measures of parental depression. Most effects (95% for cross-sectional and 91% for longitudinal) came from studies that used standardized self-report questionnaires to measure parental depressive symptoms. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, Citation1977) was the most frequently used measure for cross-sectional and longitudinal effects (44 or 41.1% for cross-sectional and 60 or 47.2% for longitudinal).

For studies that met criteria for inclusion, six longitudinal ES were based on the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (ITSEA; Carter et al., Citation2003), 5 cross-sectional and 6 longitudinal effect sizes were based on the BASC (Reynolds & Kamphaus, Citation1992), while the rest were based on instruments of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA; Achenbach, Citation2009). For cross-sectional effects, 81 (75.7%) were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, Citation2000, Citation2001), 15 (14%) with the Youth Self-Report (YSR; Achenbach & Rescorla, Citation2001), 1 (.09%) with the Teacher’s Report Form (TRF; Achenbach & Rescorla, Citation2001), and the remaining 5 (4.7%) with combined CBCL and YSR ratings. For longitudinal effects, 108 (85%) were assessed with the CBCL, 5 (3.9%) with the Teacher’s Report Form (TRF; Achenbach & Rescorla, Citation2001) or Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF; Achenbach & Rescorla, Citation2000), 1 (.08%) with the YSR, and 1 (.08%) with combined CBCL and TRF ratings.

Heterogeneity Analyses

Using the Meta-Essentials (Suurmond et al., Citation2017) software, we tested the heterogeneity of ESs. We used the classic Cochran’s Q (Cochran, Citation1954; Hedges & Olkin, Citation1985) and I2 (Higgins & Thompson, Citation2002) statistics to measure heterogeneity. Cochran’s Q is computed as the sample-size weighted sum of squares on a standardized scale. It is a significance test of heterogeneity, with a probability (p) value, such that lower p values support heterogeneity (i.e., that ESs come from a population distribution, rather than a single fixed value). I2 quantifies the magnitude of heterogeneity as the percentage of observed total variability across studies that is due to “true” heterogeneity, rather than chance (I2 = 100% x (Q - df)/Q), where df are the degrees of freedom. I2 ranges from 0 to 100%, with higher values indicating higher heterogeneity.

For both cross-sectional and longitudinal ESs, Cochran’s Qs for internalizing and externalizing problems were statistically significant (ps < .0001), and the corresponding I2s were high, ranging from 86.09 to 96.62%. Results of heterogeneity testing thus indicated significant variability of ESs among cross-sectional and longitudinal studies for both internalizing and externalizing problems. Forest plots of effects across cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are presented in , respectively. Bubbles at the bottom of the plots represent the combined effects, with the location of the bubble reflecting the estimated ES and the black line on both sides of the bubble reflecting the precision of the estimate.

Figure 2. Forest plots for Pearson correlations between parental depression and children’s internalizing (left plot) and externalizing (right plot) problems for cross-sectional studies.

Figure 2. Forest plots for Pearson correlations between parental depression and children’s internalizing (left plot) and externalizing (right plot) problems for cross-sectional studies.

Figure 3. Forest plots for Pearson correlations between parental depression and children’s internalizing (left plot) and externalizing (right plot) problems for longitudinal studies.

Figure 3. Forest plots for Pearson correlations between parental depression and children’s internalizing (left plot) and externalizing (right plot) problems for longitudinal studies.

Publication Bias Analyses

We tested for publication bias using a multi-method approach because different methods perform differently under different conditions (Macaskill et al., Citation2001; Thornton & Lee, Citation2000). Our methods included Rosenthal’s and Fisher’s failsafe N tests (Fisher, Citation1932; Rosenthal, Citation1979), Egger’s and Begg-Mazumdar’s significance tests (Begg & Mazumdar, Citation1994; Egger et al., Citation1997), and the trim and fill procedure (Duval & Tweedie, Citation2000). Fail safe N tests show how many studies with null results that were not retrieved would be needed to reduce the effect to a non-significant level. Egger’s and Begg-Mazumdar’s significance tests evaluate the symmetry of the funnel plots of ESs vis-à-vis sample sizes. The trim and fill approach estimates the combined ES after examining the funnel plot of the observed ESs, trimming the outliers, and imputing the missing ESs.

As shows, the failsafe N tests and the trim-and-fill procedure indicated no publication bias for the cross-sectional or longitudinal studies. The failsafe Ns were large (Rosenthal N range: 5,330–22,673; Fisher N range: 787–1,846), and the adjusted ES estimates generated by the trim-and-fill procedures were similar to the original ESs (see ). Results for the Egger and Begg-Mazumdar’s significance tests indicated no asymmetry in the distributions of ESs for cross-sectional internalizing effects. For cross-sectional externalizing effects and longitudinal internalizing and externalizing effects, results for the Egger or Begg-Mazumdar’s significance tests indicated asymmetry in the distributions of ESs (i.e., evidence for publication bias for positive associations between parental depression and children’s problems).

Table 1. Results of publication bias analyses for cross-sectional and longitudinal effect sizes included in meta-analyses.

Figure 4. Funnel plots for Z-transformed Pearson correlations for internalizing (left plot) and externalizing (right plot) problems for cross-sectional effect sizes.

Note. The plots include results of the trim-and-fill procedure implemented on the left side of the original meta-analytic effect size using the linear (Lo) estimator. The Combined Effect Size (CES) is the original meta-analytic effect size, and the adjusted CES is based on the trim-and-fill procedure. No effect sizes were imputed as part of the trim-and-fill procedure for Internalizing (left plot).
Figure 4. Funnel plots for Z-transformed Pearson correlations for internalizing (left plot) and externalizing (right plot) problems for cross-sectional effect sizes.

Figure 5. Funnel plots for Z-transformed Pearson correlations for internalizing (left plot) and externalizing (right plot) problems for longitudinal effect sizes.

Note. The plots include results of the trim-and-fill procedure implemented on the left side of the original meta-analytic effect size using the linear (Lo) estimator. The Combined Effect Size (CES) is the original meta-analytic effect size, and the adjusted CES is based on the trim-and-fill procedure
Figure 5. Funnel plots for Z-transformed Pearson correlations for internalizing (left plot) and externalizing (right plot) problems for longitudinal effect sizes.

Meta-analyses

For both cross-sectional and longitudinal effects, the meta-analyses with Bayesian estimation converged smoothly with no errors. Cross-sectional effects. For internalizing problems, the meta-analytic random-effects mean was Zr = 0.274 (SE = .017; p < .001; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): .234–.305). For externalizing problems, the meta-analytic random-effects mean was Zr = 0.270 (SE = .019; p < .001; 95% CI: .225–.304). In the metric of Pearson r, the meta-analytic means for internalizing and externalizing were .267 and .264, respectively. Longitudinal effects. For internalizing problems, the meta-analytic random-effects mean was Zr = 0.210 (SE = .014; p < .001; 95% CI: .183–.238). For externalizing problems, the meta-analytic random-effects mean was Zr = 0.196 (SE = .012; p < .001; 95% CI: .173–.221). The Pearson r meta-analytic means for internalizing and externalizing were .207 and .194, respectively.

Tests of Candidate Moderators

For categorical variables, we selected study characteristics as candidate moderators if they were endorsed for at least 10% of all ESs (i.e., for >11 cross-sectional and >13 longitudinal ESs, as recommended by Card, Citation2012, p. 226). As shows, for cross-sectional effects, the candidate moderators were the child variables of age, gender, and ethnicity/nationality (African/African descent vs. other; Asian/Asian descent vs. other; Latino(a)/Latino(a) descent vs. other; White European vs. other; White North American vs. other, First Nation/Native vs. other; mixed vs. other); the parent variables of parental role (mother vs. other; father vs. other; mother or father vs. other); and the study variables of N, sample type (general population vs. other), study design (cross-cultural vs. other); informant for children’s problems (parents vs. other; self vs. other) and informant consistency (i.e., same vs. different informant for parental depression and children’s problems). For longitudinal effects, moderators included the same variables as for the cross-sectional effects, with the additional variable of length of follow-up and except the following variables: mother or father vs. other for parental role; and parent vs. other and self vs. other informant for children’s problems.

Table 2. Results of moderator testing with parameter estimates for statistically significant moderators.

We tested the moderators in the framework of mixed-effects meta-analyses using SEM (Card, Citation2012; Cheung, Citation2008), while again accounting for the non-independence of effects from the same studies via multi-level modeling and using Bayesian estimation. The associations of parental depression with internalizing and externalizing problems were modeled as random effects, and candidate moderators were modeled as fixed effects.

Cross-sectional Effects

For both internalizing and externalizing problems, the following moderators were statistically significant: children’s gender and White North American vs. other ethnicity, mother vs. other parental role, N, parent vs. other informant for children’s problems, and informant consistency (i.e., same vs. different informant for parental depression and children’s problems). For internalizing problems, an additional parental role (i.e., fathers vs. others) and informant of children’s problems (i.e., self vs. other) were also significant. For externalizing problems, children’s age and an additional parental role (maternal or paternal vs. other) were also statistically significant.

When the proportion of girls in the sample was larger, correlations of parental depression with children’s internalizing problems were larger, but with externalizing problems were smaller. For both internalizing and externalizing problems, correlations between parental depression and children’s problems were smaller when the study included White North American children, and when N was larger. Also for both types of problems, correlations were larger when the proportion of maternal caregivers was larger, when parents vs. other informants rated children’s problems, and when the same informants rated parental depression and children’s problems.

Also, for internalizing problems, correlations between parental depression and children’s problems were smaller when the study focused on paternal depression vs. other caregivers and when children reported about their own problems. For externalizing problems, correlations between parental depression and children’s problems were larger when children were older and when the study focused on either maternal or paternal depression vs. other caregivers.

Longitudinal Effects

For both internalizing and externalizing problems, the following moderators were statistically significant: children’s age, mother vs. other and father vs. other parental roles, N, informant consistency, and length of time to follow-up. Correlations between parental depression and children’s problems were larger when children were older, when the study assessed maternal vs. other caregiver depression, and when the same informants rated parental depression and children’s problems. However, correlations were smaller when the study focused on paternal vs. other caregiver depression, and the N and length of time to follow-up were larger.

In addition, for internalizing problems, correlations between parental depression and children’s problems were smaller when the study included children of African ethnicity or nationality or White North American children. For externalizing problems, correlations were smaller when study design was cross-cultural.

We tested study design (i.e., cross-sectional vs. longitudinal) as a moderator of the association of parental depression with child internalizing and externalizing problems. For both internalizing and externalizing problems, the cross-sectional correlation was significantly larger than the longitudinal correlation (p < .05).

Comparison of Effects for Internalizing and Externalizing

We compared the correlations of parental depression with internalizing and externalizing problems using the method for dependent samples by Meng et al. (Citation1992). This method compares Fisher’s Z-transformed rs, and requires correlations between internalizing and externalizing from the original studies. We used multiple imputation to estimate these correlations for the 41 (38%) cross-sectional and 78 (61%) longitudinal pairs where they were missing. The imputations were based on the correlations between parental depression with internalizing and externalizing problems and on study N. For cross-sectional and longitudinal effects, the difference between the correlations of parental depression with internalizing versus externalizing problems was not statistically significant.

LAMMA Analyses

The effect of lag as a linear function was statistically significant for internalizing problems (p < .05) and approached statistical significance for externalizing problems (p < .10). Longer lag was associated with weaker associations between parental depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. The non-linear (i.e., quadratic, cubic, and quartic) definitions of lag were not statistically significant for internalizing or externalizing problems.

Discussion

We meta-analyzed 234 associations of parental depression with children’s internalizing and externalizing problems reported in 112 studies published since studies that were included in Goodman’s et al. (Citation2011) meta-analyses. Our primary goals were to rigorously test and compare associations of parental depression with children’s internalizing and externalizing problems, to compare the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of parental depression with children’s internalizing and externalizing problems, and to test the effect of assessment interval on the longitudinal relations between parental depression and children’s problems.

Our study went beyond prior meta-analyses of associations between parental depression and child internalizing and externalizing problems: (a) We included only effects obtained with well-standardized measures of both internalizing and externalizing problems for which reliability, validity, and normative data had been published; (b) studies were required to have a minimum N = 100; (c) we tested associations of parental depression with both internalizing and externalizing problems assessed with the same instruments for the same children; (d) differences between associations with internalizing and externalizing problems were tested on data for the same children; (e) cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of parental depression with child internalizing and externalizing problems were tested separately and compared; and (f) the effect of the measurement interval on the longitudinal associations of parental depression with children’s problems was tested. To maximize the statistical rigor of our meta-analyses, we used random-effects meta-analyses to account for ES heterogeneity, Bayesian estimation to obtain accurate estimates of meta-analytic ESs, and multi-level SEM to account for the non-independence of effects coming from the same studies. To test the effect of the measurement interval on the correlations between parental depression and children’s problems, we used a new meta-analytic approach that allowed us to test the nonlinear effects of the interval (Card, Citation2019).

Main Findings

The majority of ESs were calculated in relation to maternal depression with the same informant providing ratings of depression and children’s problems. Despite significant efforts to broaden the scope of this research beyond mothers (Goodman, Citation2004; Kane & Garber, Citation2004), most studies focused on maternal depression.

Mean rs between parental depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems were statistically significant in both cross-sectional (rs = .267 and .264) and longitudinal (rs = .207 and .194) analyses. Our ESs were similar in magnitude to the ESs reported by Goodman’s et al. (Citation2011), Kane and Garber (Citation2004), and Connell and Goodman (Citation2002) in their meta-analyses. The difference between the correlations of parental depression with internalizing versus externalizing problems was not statistically significant for cross-sectional or longitudinal effects. Also, for both internalizing and externalizing problems, the cross-sectional correlation was significantly larger than the longitudinal correlation.

As tested by LAMMA, the length of the measurement interval between parental depression and children’s problems affected their longitudinal correlations. The effect of the interval was statistically significant for internalizing problems and approached statistical significance for externalizing problems. For both internalizing and externalizing, the longer measurement intervals were associated with lower correlations between parental depression and children’s problems. The effects were linear, as non-linear associations between the length of the interval and correlations between parental depression and children’s problems were not supported for internalizing or externalizing problems.

Moderators of Correlations between Parental Depression and Child Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

Both cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between parental depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems were larger for mothers than for other caregivers. Because mothers are the primary caregivers for many children, their depressive symptoms may predict child problems better than the depressive symptoms of other caregivers. As primary caregivers, mothers may also be more affected by their children’s problems than are other caregivers, which may worsen their depression, thereby strengthening associations between maternal depression and child problems.

We also found several significant informant-related moderators. The cross-sectional correlations between parental depression and child internalizing and externalizing problems were larger when parents rather than other informants rated children’s problems. In addition, the cross-sectional correlations of parental depression with internalizing problems were smaller when children rather than other informants rated children’s problems.

Because parents reported about parental depression in all studies included in our meta-analyses, the shared informant variance between parents’ ratings of their own depression and parents’ ratings of their children’s problems may have boosted some correlations. Conversely, when children rated their problems, the correlations may have been smaller because ratings of parental depression and children’s problems did not share informant variance. The findings that both cross-sectional and longitudinal correlations between parental depression and child internalizing and externalizing problems were larger when the same informant rated parental depression and children’s problems support this hypothesis.

Several child characteristics were also significant moderators. For example, we found that White ethnicity attenuated the association between parental depression and child problems. Inclusion of White-North American children in a sample was associated with smaller cross-sectional correlations of parental depression with child internalizing and externalizing problems, and smaller longitudinal correlations of parental depression with child internalizing problems. That White ethnicity weakened associations of parental depression with child problems may reflect the socioeconomic advantages generally enjoyed by ethnic Whites in comparison to people of other ethnicities. For example, White mothers are more likely to initiate and continue treatment for postpartum depression than African American and Latina mothers (Ertel et al., Citation2011; Kozhimannil et al., Citation2011). Moreover, White mothers with depression experience fewer adversities (e.g., financial difficulties, poverty, separation/divorce, unemployment) than African American and Latina mothers with depression (Ertel et al., Citation2011). The socioeconomic advantages enjoyed by White parents may thus mitigate risks associated with parental depression for their children.

For cross-sectional effects, the proportion of girls in a sample was associated with larger correlations between parental depression and child internalizing problems, but smaller correlations between parental depression and child externalizing problems. These findings are consistent with findings by others that, while parental depression increases the risk of both internalizing and externalizing problems for both girls and boys, the combination of problems may be weighted heavier toward internalizing for girls (e.g., Essex et al., Citation2003; Sheeber et al., Citation2002).

Also, children’s age was associated with larger longitudinal correlations between parental depression and children’s internalizing problems and larger cross-sectional and longitudinal correlations between parental depression and children’s externalizing problems. The findings for children’s gender and age are consistent with previous findings that relations between parental depression, children’s problems, age and gender are complex, with girls and boys differing in how parental depression affects them at different developmental stages (Quarini et al., Citation2016).

Limitations of the Study

Our random effects modeling addressed the heterogeneity of ESs, but high heterogeneity reflects the complexity of factors affecting the relations of parental depression to child internalizing and externalizing problems. Our moderator analyses revealed some of these factors, but the available studies did not provide sufficient data to test other possible factors. For example, because parental depression frequently co-occurs with other problems, parents in the meta-analyzed studies were likely heterogeneous with respect to their co-occurring problems. Better differentiated assessment of parental psychopathology might yield better understanding of how depression and other problems become associated with child internalizing and externalizing problems in future studies. In addition, the paucity of studies that assessed parental depression with a diagnostic interview further limited our ability to test how clinical aspects of parental depression that are frequently measured by these interviews (e.g., onset, chronicity, severity) affected its relations to children’s problems.

Summary and Implications for Research and Practice

For researchers, our findings indicated that future meta-analytic studies should separate cross-sectional and longitudinal effects. Cross-sectional correlations were higher than longitudinal correlations for both internalizing and externalizing problems. Also, the moderators affected cross-sectional and longitudinal associations differently, speaking to potentially different processes involved in the cross-sectional and longitudinal relations between parental depression and child emotional and behavioral problems.

For clinicians, our findings suggest that parental depression is a broad risk factor that is linked to both internalizing and externalizing child psychopathology. Clinicians may also find it useful to think of parental depression as a risk factor for children’s general factor of psychopathology (p-factor), as internalizing and externalizing problems are both indices of the p-factor (Forbes et al., Citation2019; Murray et al., Citation2016). Supporting this idea, Swales et al. (Citation2022) found that when the child p-factor and internalizing and externalizing factors were modeled as part of a bi-factor model, maternal depression was associated with the p-factor, but not with internalizing or externalizing.

Because parents suffering from depression often experience co-occurring mental health problems and parental depression is a risk factor for both internalizing and externalizing child problems, clinicians should assess broad spectra of both parent and child psychopathology. Assessment of parents and children should incorporate reports by different informants, as several of our significant moderators implicated informant factors. Clinicians should also be aware that the link between parental depression and child problems may be especially strong for nonwhite families. Helping nonwhite parents access mental health care and supports for family functioning may reduce risks for children’s internalizing and externalizing problems.

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Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary Material

Supplemental material for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2022.2127104

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