Impact of Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Quality of Interactive Behaviors on Social Emotional Problems of Toddlers on the Autism Spectrum among Hong Kong Chinese

摘要

The quality of the caregiver-child reciprocal interaction was significant for a young child's healthy social-emotional and cognitive development. This study aimed to examine the impact of maternal depressive symptoms and toddlers' developmental functioning on toddlers' social emotional competence and problems, as mediated by the mother-toddler interactive behavior. A total of 104 toddlers aged from 24 to 35 months were recruited from a psychiatric clinic and from nurseries in the community. Mother-toddler free-play interactions were videotaped in a room at their respective places, and coded using the Coding Interactive Behavior system. Toddlers' social and emotional competence and problems were measured by the Chinese version of Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. The findings of the current study showed toddlers' competence and social-emotional problems were two separate dimensions of the outcomes. Results indicated that positive interactive behavior was significantly associated with toddlers' competence, but not with toddlers' problems, whereas maternal depressive symptoms were significantly associated with both toddlers' competence and problems. Partial mediation between toddlers' developmental functioning and their competence through interactive behavior was established. Further analysis was done to divide the full sample into two groups, the ASD and the non-ASD groups, based on the results from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers. When comparing the ASD group with the non-ASD group, mothers in the non-ASD group who had more depressive symptoms were more likely to have less positive interactive behaviors. In the ASD group, higher functioning toddlers appeared to engage in more positive mother-toddler interactive behavior. Implications for clinical services for maternal depression and ASD young children were discussed. The current research was the first of this kind of observational study of very young children with ASD in Hong Kong.