Maternal depressive symptomatology and family cohesion : a comparison of perceived family cohesion in mother-child dyads

Abstract

Perceptions of family cohesion were compared in two groups of mother-child dyads. Two measures of cohesion (the FES and FACES III) were obtained from 17 mothers who reported depressive symptomatology and their children (ages 11 to 17 years). Each family was matched with, a community comparison family on age and sex of child, family size, and single versus dual parent status. Three hypotheses were tested: (a) target mothers would perceive lower family cohesion than would comparison mothers; (b) children of target mothers would perceive lower family cohesion than would the children of comparison mothers; and (c) there would be more congruence between children's ratings of cohesion and their mothers' ratings in the target group than in the comparison group. The results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed that mothers and children in the target group did not differ in reported cohesion from mothers and children in the comparison group. However, the group means were in the direction predicted in the first two hypotheses. In addition, the correlation coefficients between mothers' and children's cohesion scores did not differ between groups for either measure. The results are discussed with respect to the relationship between cohesion, maternal depressive symptomatology, and child adjustment.