Abstract
Children whose mothers are depressed are at risk for a range of difficulties in childhood and adolescence, including emotional and behavioral problems, attachment and academic difficulties, and problems in self-regulation, peer relationships, and sleep regulation. The focus of this chapter is specifically on the association between mothers' anxious, depressed symptoms and children's emotional problems (e.g. anxious, depressed behavior, also called internalizing problems) and behavioral problems (e.g. aggressive, disruptive, undercontrolled behavior, also called externalizing problems). Emotional and behavioral problems are referred to collectively as "problem behaviors." The mechanisms by which mothers' depression has been hypothesized to influence children's problem behaviors include genetic transmission of risk for psychopathology, neurodevelopmental insult in the prenatal or perinatal periods, difficulties in parent-child interaction, and social stressors that may impinge on parent and child functioning alike.