Alexandria Digital Research Library

Mediational effect of maternal depressive symptoms on the relationship between social support and high risk child health outcomes

Author:
Padilla, Eva A.
Degree Grantor:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Psychology
Degree Supervisor:
Aaron Blackwell and James Roney
Place of Publication:
[Santa Barbara, Calif.]
Publisher:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Creation Date:
2016
Issued Date:
2016
Topics:
Developmental psychology, Psychology, and Evolution & development
Keywords:
Social support
Evolutionary psychology
Maternal depression
Contingent parental investment
Child health
Genres:
Online resources and Dissertations, Academic
Dissertation:
M.A.--University of California, Santa Barbara, 2016
Description:

Previous research has indicated that various forms of parental resources (money, attention) affect parental investment in children, contingent on the health risk of the child (Beaulieu & Bugental, 2008; Bugental & Schwartz, 2009; Bugental, Beaulieu, & Silbert-Geiger, 2010). In other words, high resource parents with a high risk child invest more in their child than high resource parents with a low risk child. A reverse pattern holds for low resource parents. This study examines social support as another parental resource with a downstream effect on an outcome of successful parental investment: child health. Social support has been shown to ameliorate maternal depression (Cutrona & Troutman, 1986), which in turn is predictive of premature infants' cortisol reactivity (Bugental, Beaulieu, & Schwartz, 2008). Depressive symptoms also serve as signals for assistance (Hagen, 2002), which is particularly important for mothers of high risk children. We tested the hypothesis that social support would positively affect child health by reducing maternal depressive symptoms. Our predictions were supported. The relationship between social integration and child health was mediated by maternal depressive symptoms for high risk children, but not for low risk children providing support for the contingent parental investment model.

Physical Description:
1 online resource (38 pages)
Format:
Text
Collection(s):
UCSB electronic theses and dissertations
ARK:
ark:/48907/f3vh5p0w
ISBN:
9781369575729
Catalog System Number:
990047512170203776
Rights:
Inc.icon only.dark In Copyright
Copyright Holder:
Eva Padilla
File Description
Access: Public access
Padilla_ucsb_0035N_13212.pdf pdf (Portable Document Format)