Mothers with Depression, Anxiety or Eating Disorders: Outcomes on Their Children and the Role of Paternal Psychological Profiles

The present paper aims to longitudinally assess the emotional functioning of children of mothers with depression, anxiety, or eating disorders and of mothers with no psychological disorders and to evaluate the possible mediating role of fathers’ psychological profiles on children’s internalizing/externalizing functioning using SCID I, SCL-90/R and CBCL/1 -5. The results showed maternal psychopathology to be strongly related to children’s maladaptive profiles. Children of mothers with depression and anxiety showed higher internalizing scores than children of other groups. These scores increased from T1 to T2. Children of mothers with eating disorders showed higher and increasing externalizing scores than children of other groups. The data showed that fathers’ interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety and psychoticism significantly predicted internalizing problems of the children. Moreover, interpersonal sensitivity and psychoticism significantly predicted externalizing problems. Our results confirmed the impact of maternal psychopathology on maladaptive outcomes in their children, which suggests the importance of considering paternal psychological profiles