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Depression in early childhood increases risk of psychopathology and impairment across the lifespan. Parent–Child Interaction Therapy-Emotion Development (PCIT-ED) effectively treats depression and improves functioning in preschoolers. Parental depression has been associated with inconsistent parenting, depression onset and maintenance in offspring, and decreased treatment efficacy for youth. Given the intensity of parent involvement in PCIT-ED, this secondary data analysis aimed to evaluate parental depression severity (i.e., Beck Depression Inventory-II Total Score; BDI-II) as a moderator and predictor of child, parenting, and engagement outcomes, within the context of a randomized trial. Children (N = 229; ages 3–6.11) with early childhood depression and a consenting caregiver were randomly assigned to receive PCIT-ED or Waitlist (WL). Moderation results supported the superiority of PCIT-ED over WL on child and parenting outcomes, independent of parent-reported BDI-II at baseline (p ≥ 0.684 and p ≥ 0.476, respectively). BDI-II did not significantly predict child (p ≥ 0.836), parenting (p ≥ 0.114) or engagement (p ≥ 0.114) outcomes. Finally, BDI-II did not surpass chance in predicting whether children would maintain a depression diagnosis after PCIT-ED (AUC = 0.530) or prematurely terminate treatment (AUC = 0.545). Our results suggest that PCIT-ED is not contraindicated by minimal-to-moderate symptoms of depression in parents. Taken together with previous reports, PCIT-ED may indeed be a particularly beneficial treatment choice for this population. Further research in samples with more severe parental depression is needed. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02076425. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Research suggests that certain parenting behaviors are best suited to promote optimal child development, depending on a child's distinctive temperamental presentation. This multimethod, longitudinal study examines the interactive effect of parenting and temperament in early childhood on the developmental trajectory of social anxiety in adolescence. Methods: Longitudinal growth modeling was used to examine the developmental trajectory of child social anxiety from age 9–15 and the interactive effect of parenting and child temperament at 36 months on the developmental trajectory of child social anxiety from age 9–15. Results: The slope of social anxiety from age 9–15 suggested a decrease in social anxiety throughout early adolescence. Furthermore, 36‐month behavioral inhibition (BI) predicted the trajectory of child social anxiety from age 9–15 when parents displayed low and high levels of dismissive and supportive parenting (at 36 months). Conclusions: Results support an interactive effect of infant temperament and parenting in early childhood (at 36 months) on the developmental trajectory of child social anxiety from age 9–15. Specifically, results suggest that engaging highly inhibited children with high supportive and low dismissive parenting may help reduce social anxiety over time in adolescence. Furthermore, parenting needs may differ for children high or low in BI to impact the developmental trajectory of social anxiety in adolescence, such that children who are high BI seem to benefit from low dismissive and high supportive parenting, and children who are low in BI seem to benefit more from high dismissive parenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parenting practices, especially those characterized by harsh and neglectful behaviors, have a significant impact on child development. Despite the importance of parenting, little attention has been paid to personality-linked constructs that may guide how parents make decisions regarding their interactions with their children. For instance, parents who focus on getting their child to do something immediately may engage in behaviors that yield rapid compliance (e.g., hitting, yelling) at the expense of longer-term parent-child relationship quality. Building on literatures examining the effects of time horizon on behavior, this series of studies examined the development of a measure of parental time horizon to evaluate whether parents who focus on short-term (immediate) consequences of their actions experience higher rates of parenting distress and engage in more negative parenting behaviors. Study 1 examined the psychometric properties of a parenting-adapted Consideration of Future Consequences Scale, finding that more immediate time orientation was associated with greater parenting stress. Study 2 replicated these results and relations to parenting distress, suggesting that time orientation was associated with positive and negative parenting behaviors in a socioeconomically distressed sample. Together, these studies demonstrate support for further evaluating parental time orientation and its effects on parent and child outcomes. • Parental time horizon was associated with parental distress and parenting behaviors. • Parents focused on the immediate term reported more stress and harsher parenting. • Parents with longer time horizons engaged in more positive parenting practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]