Parental Depression and Child Behaviour Problems Prof Judy Hutchings, Dr Tracey Bywater, Margiad Elen Williams, B.Sc, & Chris Whitaker, M.Sc, C. Stat Background: Well-established relationship between maternal depression and child conduct problems. Key deficits of observation and problem-solving skills found among depressed populations and parents of children with conduct problems. Vast amount of literature showing that some parenting programmes, particularly those that focus on teaching observation skills and use role-play/rehearsal, are effective in reducing both childhood conduct problems and maternal depression. Aim of paper: To provide further analyses of a previous study (Hutchings et al., 2007) to explore whether improvement in depression plays a mediating role with improvements in child behaviour. Hutchings et al. (2007) study Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of the Incredible Years Basic Parent Programme as a preventive intervention with parents of children at- risk for developing conduct disorder. Design Randomised Controlled Trial Eleven Sure Start areas across North & Mid-Wales Follow-up six-months after intervention 153 families: 104 intervention & 49 control Outcome Measures Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory (ECBI) Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) Arnold-O’Leary Parenting Scale Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS) Current study Question examined: Does change in maternal depression mediate change in child conduct problem outcome? Sample N=133 with both pre- and post-data 86 intervention & 47 controls Mediation analyses IV: Intervention status (Intervention vs. Control) MV: Change in maternal depression DV: Several different measures entered e.g. ECBI Problem scale, Arnold-O’Leary total score, three DPICS categories. In order to get a mediation effect, all three variables must correlate with each other. Figure 1. Reduction in parental depression Figure 2. Reduction in child behaviour problems Results Only three of the tested DV’s correlated with both the IV and MV therefore only these were tested for mediation. Both ECBI problem scale and Arnold-O’Leary parenting scale are significantly mediated by change in maternal depression (BDI). Positive parenting behaviour was not significantly mediated by change in maternal depression (BDI). Intervention status (N) Measure (cut- off) BaselineFollow-up Significance level (p) Intervention (n=86) BDI41 (48%)17 (20%)<.001 ECBI Problem scale 74 (86%)33 (38%)<.001 Control (n=47) BDI16 (34%)11 (23%).096 (n.s.) ECBI Problem scale 35 (72%)31 (66%).323 (n.s.) MeasureSobel value Significance level (p) ECBI Problem scale Arnold-O’Leary parenting scale Positive parenting behaviour (obs) Table 1. Number of participants above clinical cut-off levels pre- and post-intervention Table 2. Results of mediation analysis Findings & Conclusions Change in parental depression was a partial mediator of change in child behaviour outcomes using the ECBI (problem scale). There were significant improvements in both parent-report of child behaviour and observed parenting for both non-depressed and depressed parents. Observed positive parenting correlated significantly with improved depression scores. Therefore, we can be confident that it was not change in parental reporting accuracy that contributed to this finding. For more information, contact Prof Judy Hutchings, Nantlle Building, Normal Site, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2PZ or tel: or