Sensitive fathering as a moderator between maternal depression and adolsecent internalizing and externalizing behavior

The current study investigated the importance of a father-adolescent relationship when a mother experiences depressive symptomatology. Specifically, does a sensitive father serve to buffer his adolescent's social-emotional well-being from the potential negative outcomes associated with maternal depression (e.g., depression, anxiety; Bureau, Easterbrooks, & Ruth-Lyons, 2009; Cummings et al. 2005; increased behavior problems and psychopathology; Garstein & Sheeber, 2004)? Secondary statistical analyses were ran on 498 families of adolescents using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care (SECC) longitudinal data set. Results indicate that having a sensitive father does moderate the relationship between a mother who has depressive symptoms and her adolescent daughter's depressive and anxious symptoms. An adolescent girl with a depressed mother will experience fewer anxious/depressed symptoms when she has a father high on sensitivity; however when her father is lower on sensitivity, she will experience more anxious depressed symptoms. The results were not significant for externalizing behavior, thus having a sensitive father did not serve as a buffer between maternal depression and adolescent externalizing symptoms.