Correlates of Coping Styles in Children of Depressed Parents: Observations of Positive and Negative Emotions in Parent-Child Interactions

Abstract

This study examined the role of coping style in predicting positive and negative affect observed in interactions between children and parents with a history of depression. The anxious and depressive symptoms of the children were also examined in relation to both reports of coping and observed measures of affect. Correlational analyses indicated that primary and secondary control coping as measured by the child-report were positively correlated with observed positive mood and negatively correlated with observed sadness. Disengagement coping was negatively correlated with observed positive mood. In predicting anxious/depressed symptoms measured by the YSR, positive mood was more informative than sadness and primary and secondary control coping were more predictive than disengagement coping. Implications of these finding are discussed.