Depressive Symptomatology and Program Efficacy: Examining a Program to Improve Communication in Community Families

• Author: Abigail L. Downey,E. Mark Cummings,Haley M. Gedek,Jennifer S. Cummings,Kathleen N. Bergman
• Published date: 01 April 2018
• Date: 01 April 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12340

DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY AND PROGRAM EFFICACY:

EXAMINING A PROGRAM TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION IN

COMMUNITY FAMILIES

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Kathleen N. Bergman, Abigail L. Downey, Jennifer S. Cummings, Haley M. Gedek, and

E. Mark Cummings

Destructive conflict is linked with adjustment problems over time, putting families at risk even when conflict behaviors have

not reached levels of clinical concern. The Family Communication Project (FCP) is a psychoeducational program designed to

improve communication in families with adolescent children. The present study examines the role of depression in program

efficacy over time. Data were collected across four time points, assessing aspects of marital and family conflict, adolescent

emotional security, and depressive symptoms in mothers, fathers, and adolescents. Results indicated improvements in conflict

strategies for families who received the psychoeducational program (relative to controls), and point to a role of depressive

symptomatology in adolescents in relation to treatment outcomes.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

Brief, interactive programs that are empirically informed and empirically supported can be effective in shaping and

improving family relationships processes.

Intervening before problems become severe can minimize challenges associated with destructive patterns of behavior,

which can increase over time without intervention.

Depressive symptomatology may play a role in shaping program effects and should be considered when recommending

treatment or supportive services.

Keywords: Conflict Resolution; Depressive Symptomatology; Family Communication; Preventive Intervention; and

Translational Research.

The impact of destructive marital conflict, including behaviors like aggression, hostility, defen-

siveness, and withdrawal, on adolescents’ adjustment has been well established. Studies have linked

exposure to marital conflict to both internalizing and externalizing problems in children and adoles-

cents (Davies & Cummings, 1998; Grych & Fincham, 1990; Porter & O’Leary, 1980). Research, fur-

thermore, has shown that the effect of interparental conflict on children changes over time and that

adolescents may be particularly vulnerable to the effect of destructive marital conflict (Cummings,

Schermerhorn, Davies, Goeke-Morey, & Cummings, 2006; Davies, Sturge-Apple, Winter, Cum-

mings, & Farrell, 2006). The literature also supports links between destructive conflict and increased

risk for adjustment problems and dissatisfaction between marital partners (Cummings & Davies,

2010; Gottman & Krokoff, 1989; Markman, Renick, Floyd, Stanley, & Clements, 1993).

Moreover, the presence of symptoms of psychopathology, both in parents and their children, may

exacerbate these and related processes (Chiariello & Orvaschel, 1995). Having a parent with depres-

sion, in particular, is associated with adjustment problems in children and adolescents (Downey &

Coyne, 1990; Elgar, Mills, McGrath, Waschbusch, & Brownridge, 2007). Parent-child communica-

tion may be impaired in parents with depression. Jacobs and Johnson (2001) reported associations

between paternal depression and positivity suppression (a communicative deficit) in parent-child

interactions. Father-child communication deficits were associated with elevated behavior problems in

children. Greater effects of depressive parenting have been reported for girls compared to boys

(Kerig, Cowan, & Cowan, 1993). Marital conflict and adolescents’ emotional security may

Correspondence: kbergman@nd.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 56 No. 2, April 2018 269–280

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C2018 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts