About this session

Saturday, 12:10 PM - 1:40 PM

A Developmental Psychopathology Perspective on the Interplay of Caregiving and Psychopathology Across Generations

A substantial body of research has shown that children who experience lower-quality caregiving are at increased risk for symptoms of psychopathology across the lifespan (e.g., VanMeter et al., 2021). In turn, parents’ own symptoms of psychopathology are associated with the quality of care they provide to their children (e.g., Bernard et al., 2019). Therefore, it is critically important to understand the complex relationships between caregiving and psychopathology in both parents and children. Research that moves beyond simply documenting associations between caregiving quality and psychopathology in either generation is needed to further advance our understanding of these constructs. This symposium highlights studies that explore the antecedents and sequalae of caregiving through a developmental psychopathology lens by incorporating dimensional approaches to measuring psychopathology, multilevel analysis, and exploration of risk pathways across generations. The first talk uses novel eye-tracking methodologies to investigate associations between maternal depressive symptoms, infant social communication, and temporally specific social referencing behaviors. The second talk examines the longitudinal associations between the consistency (rather than quality alone) of caregiving experiences in early childhood and symptoms of psychopathology from kindergarten through age 39 years. The third talk examines whether supportive and negative caregiving explain discrepancies between parent- and self-reported internalizing symptoms among adolescents. Finally, the last talk presents data from a recent umbrella review (systematic review of meta-analyses) examining the associations between parent and child psychopathology and parental sensitivity. Taken together, these studies highlight innovative approaches to the study of caregiving and psychopathology across generations.

Paper #1
Title	Associations Between Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Infant Communication Development, and Mother-Infant Face-looking Patterns During Play
Presenting author	Sarah K. Markert, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, United States

Paper #2
Title	Moving Beyond Mean Levels: Caregiving Consistency Predicts Psychopathology Symptoms from Childhood to Middle Adulthood
Presenting author	Sophia Magro, Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences, Northwestern University, United States

Paper #3
Title	Associations Between Parent-Child Reporting Discrepancies of Children’s Internalizing Symptoms and Qualities of the Parent-Child Relationship
Presenting author	Clarissa Rose Filetti, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, United States

Paper #4
Title	Parental Sensitivity and Psychopathology: An Umbrella Review and Mega-Analysis
Presenting author	Marissa Nivison, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Canada

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Session chairs
Marissa Nivison, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Canada; Sophia Magro, , United States

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