Research Article | Open Access
How Depressive Symptomatology of Mothers of Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders Relates to their Participation in Relationship Focused Intervention
Gerald Mahoney Bridgette Wiggers Sunghee Nam Shanna Kralovic Frida Perales
Pages: None-None
Abstract
This descriptive, exploratory study investigated whether the depressive symptoms of mothers of
young children with Pervasive Developmental Disabilities (PDD) was associated with their
participation in a relationship focused intervention. Nineteen parent-child dyads received weekly
Responsive Teaching (RT) intervention sessions for 10 months. Results indicated significant prepost- differences in parents’ responsivenss with their children as well as children’s development and
social emotional functioning. Changes in mothers’ responsivenss accounted for between 5 to 26% of
the variance in intervention changes in children’s development and social emotional functioning.
While mothers’ depressive symptoms were not associated with intervention changes in
responsiveness, they were negatively associated with intervention changes in children’s development
and social emotional functioning. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for early
intervention practice
Keywords
Early intervention, Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Relationship, Focused Intervention, Parental Responsiveness, Parenting Depression