Hypotheses relating to depression:
1, Higher levels o f maternal depression are associated with higher ratings o f
child behaviour problems from both mothers* and criterion informants.
This hypothesis was tentatively confirmed for mothers’ ratings, where there was found to be a significant positive-correlation between maternal levels of
depression as measured by the BDI, and maternal ratings of chüd behaviour problems, as measured by the PBCL. The correlation between criterion ratings of chüd behaviour problems and maternal levels of depression, was not found to be statisticaUy significant, although the association was found to be in the same direction as mothers’ ratings, i.e. a positive-correlation.
2. Higher levels o f maternal depression are associated with greater discrepancy between mothers* and criterion ratings o f child behaviour problems.
This hypothesis was not confirmed. The correlation between the level of maternal depression and the size of discrepancy between mothers and criterion raters of child behaviour problems was found not to be significant; indeed the correlation was found to be extremely weak.
Hypotheses relating to representations:
3, The more positive the content ofparticipants* representations o f child, self, and parents, the less discrepant child behaviour problem ratings will tend to be.
Tentative confirmation of this hypothesis came from content features of
representations as inferred from both repertory grid, and free-response measures. The strongest support emanates from the free-response descriptions of self.
From the repertory grid:
There were found to be significant correlations between participants’ ratings of their fathers as being less active, and having less agency, and discrepancies in child behaviour problem ratings. There was also found to be a statistically significant inverse-correlation between ratings of the child on the agency factor and size and direction of discrepancy between mothers and criterion raters of child behaviour problems. However, there were found to be no statistically
significant correlations between ratings of self or own mother, and discrepancy scores, on any of the content features as measured by the repertory grid.
From the free-response descriptions:
Ratings of representations of child
There were no statistically significant correlations between the content features of the child descriptions and discrepancy between mothers’ and criterion ratings of child behaviour problems. There was some degree of association found between ratings of mothers’ descriptions of their child on the role reversal dimension and discrepancy, although this was not statistically significant.
However, the correlation between ratings on the role reversal dimension and mothers’ ratings of child behaviour problems, was found to be significant. Similar significant correlations were found between ratings of the mothers’ view of her child as being critical, or representations of the child as being rejecting, and mothers’ ratings of child behaviour problems. One other scale was found to be inversely-correlated with mothers’ ratings of child behaviour:
negative/positive regard, i.e. the less positive a mother’s representations of her child were rated as being, the more the mother tended to rate her child has having behavioural problems. However, none of these three dimensions showed any reasonable degree of association with discrepancy between raters.
Ratings o f representations o f self
Ratings of descriptions of self on the negative/positive regard dimension were found to be inversely correlated with discrepancy in child behaviour problem ratings. Thus, the less positive regard the participant was rated as having for themselves, the more positively-discrepant ratings of child behaviour tended to be, with the mother rating her child as more deviant than the criterion rater. The converse is also true: that the more positive regard a participant was rated as having for themselves, the more negative-discrepant ratings of child behaviour tended to be. Such a result is due to the fact that instances of both mothers’ ratings being greater than criterion ratings (positive-discrepancy), and mothers’ ratings being lower than criterion ratings (negative-discrepancy) were found. However, rather than outline both directions in each case only positive- discrepancy win be referred to, for ease.
A further two dimensions were significantly correlated with mothers’ ratings of child behaviour problems. There was found to be an inverse-correlation between ratings of the mothers’ self description on the loving/unloving dimension and mothers’ ratings of child behaviour problems. Hence, the less loving the mother was rated as being, the more she rated her child as having behaviour problems. Also the more a mother was rated as holding a representation of herself as rejecting, the more she was found to rate her child as having child behaviour problems. However, correlations of both these dimensions with discrepancy
scores were not found to be statistically significant although they did show some degree of association.
Ratings of representations of own mother
No dimensions from descriptions of own mother were found to be significantly correlated with discrepancy scores.
4, The structural features ofparticipants* representations o f child, self, and
parents, will be associated with discrepancy in child behaviour problem
ratings.
There was less support for this hypothesis than for the previous one. None of the structural features as measured by the repertory grid analysis were found to correlate with discrepancy in child behaviour ratings, or with mothers’ ratings of child behaviour problems. Nor were any significant associations found between the structural features of representations of either child, or own mother, as measured from the free-response descriptions. However, some support
for this hypothesis was implied from the analysis of free-response descriptions of self. Participant mothers whose descriptions of self were rated as predominantly more sophisticated in terms of the mode of representations used in the
description, tended to be more positively-discrepant in terms of the child’s behaviour problem ratings, when compared with criterion ratings. Furthermore, the reflective-self fimction dimension was significantly inversely-correlated with mothers’ ratings of child behaviour problems. Those participants rated as being less able to reflect on their own and others’ motivations and behaviours, tended
to rater their child as having more problematic behaviours. However, this dimension did not correlate significantly with discrepancy in child behaviour ratings.
Hypothesis Relating to the New Proposed Model;
5. Representations and depression together better explain maternal- informant-specific variance in child behaviour ratings than each does
independently.
Limited support for this hypothesis came fi*om the multiple regression analyses. The depression measure alone was found to explain less than one percent of discrepancy between mothers’ and criterion ratings of child behaviour problems. Whereas the combined measures of Rejecting, Unloving, and Negative regard, from the ratings of participants’ self descriptions, labelled Self-RUN, accounted for 41% of variance in discrepancy scores. Similarly, the predominant mode of representation dimension, from the scales measuring structural features of representations, was found to account for 22% of the variance.
The significant multiple regression analysis of depression and Self-RUN on discrepancy scores, demonstrated a positive but extremely small increase in the percentage of variance in discrepancy explained by the combined influence of depression and the Self-RUN variables, when compared to the influence of the Self-RUN variable alone (Multiple R-squared = .415, as opposed to r-squared = .414).
However, a further multiple regression revealed that the combined influence of the two self description variables: Self-RUN and predominant mode of
representation, were able to explain more of the variance (56%) in discrepancy then either were alone. Also, that each were significant predictors of discrepancy even after the effect of the other variable had been partialed out.