Accuracy of Stress Appraisals: Relationships between Mother and Adolescent Daughter Depression (2013)

Undergraduate: Cope Feurer

Faculty Advisor: Mitch Prinstein
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Associations between maternal and offspring depression have been thoroughly established, but many questions remain as to how maternal depression increases risk for depression in youth. Evidence suggests that children of depressed mothers are exposed to elevated levels of interpersonal stress and may be at a higher risk for developing cognitive vulnerabilities to depression. Therefore, this study examined how adolescent girls appraise naturally occurring life stressors and how these stress appraisals are associated with maternal and offspring depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms in female adolescent participants and their mothers (n = 57) were evaluated at two time points separated by a 9 month interval. Adolescents also participated in a semi-structured interview at the second time point in order to assess episodes of life stress and appraisals of these episodes. In accordance with our hypothesis, elevated appraisals of stress restricted to the interpersonal domain were associated with increases in depressive symptoms in the youth. Additionally, elevated appraisals of interpersonal stress moderated the relationship between maternal and youth depressive symptoms. Maternal depression was not related to the way in which youth appraised stress. These findings contribute to interpersonal models of depression, suggesting that increases in depression are associated with stress appraisals restricted to the interpersonal domain.