Citation

Rockhill CM, Fan MY, Katon WJ, McCauley E, Crick NR, Pleck JH. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 2007; 35(3): 429-441.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Seattle, WA 98195-6560, USA. rockhill@u.washington.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10802-007-9101-z

PMID

17294129

Abstract

This observational study supplements the strong and consistent link found between childhood depression and deficits in interpersonal functioning by examining the relationship between a high versus low score on the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and children's emotions when interacting with their best friends. High-CDI and low-CDI target children (n=86) were paired for videotaped game-playing with self-reported best friends. Researchers found that although high-CDI target children were not distinguishable from low-CDI peers in their displays of positive and negative emotion. However, the partners of high-CDI target children displayed significantly more negative emotion during the competitive task and significantly less positive emotion during the cooperative task than did partners of low-CDI target children. In addition, high-CDI target children and their partners reported less enjoyment of their interactions than low-CDI target children and their partners. This combination of findings suggests that depressive symptoms were associated with a relative lack of success achieving an optimal friendship interaction even under highly favorable conditions.

Language: en