Objective To examine the effect of maternal depressive symptoms on child problem behavior trajectories and how the father's positive involvement may modify this association. Design Secondary data analysis using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Setting A nationally representative household sample of men and women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Participants The study sample includes 6552 mother-child dyads interviewed biennially between January 1, 1992, and December 31, 2002; children were 0 to 10 years old at baseline. Intervention Past-week maternal depressive symptoms in 1992. Main Outcome Measures Maternal self-reports of child internalizing and externalizing behaviors were assessed repeatedly using a modified Child Behavior Checklist. Results Linear growth curve models indicate that the adverse effects of maternal depressive symptoms on child problem behavior trajectories become negligible after controlling for the father's involvement and other covariates, including the child's age, sex, and race/ethnicity; the mother's educational level; maternal age at child birth; number of children; poverty status; urban residence; and father’s residential status. Positive involvement by the father was inversely associated with child problem behavior trajectories. The effects of maternal depressive symptoms on child problem behaviors varied by the level of the father's positive involvement. Conclusion When the father actively compensates for limitations in the depressed mother's functioning, the child's risk of problem behaviors may be reduced.

Background: Efforts to elucidate risk factors for placental abruption are imperative due to the severity of complications it produces for both mother and fetus, and its contribution to preterm birth. Ethnicity-based differences in risk of placental abruption and preterm birth have been reported. We tested the hypotheses that race, after adjusting for other factors, is associated with the risk of placental abruption at specific gestational ages, and that there is a greater contribution of placental abruption to the increased risk of preterm birth in Black mothers, compared to White mothers. Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study using the Missouri Department of Health's maternally-linked database of all births in Missouri (1989–1997) to assess racial effects on placental abruption and the contribution of placental abruption to preterm birth, at different gestational age categories (n = 664,303). Results: Among 108,806 births to Black mothers and 555,497 births to White mothers, 1.02% (95% CI 0.96–1.08) of Black births were complicated by placental abruption, compared to 0.71% (95% CI 0.69–0.73) of White births (aOR 1.32, 95% CI 1.22–1.43). The magnitude of risk of placental abruption for Black mothers, compared to White mothers, increased with younger gestational age categories. The risk of placental abruption resulting in term and extreme preterm births (< 28 weeks) was higher for Black mothers (aOR 1.15, 95% CI 1.02–1.29 and aOR 1.98, 95% CI 1.58–2.48, respectively). Compared to White women delivering in the same gestational age category, there were a significantly higher proportion of placental abruption in Black mothers who delivered at term, and a significantly lower proportion of placental abruption in Black mothers who delivered in all preterm categories (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Black women have an increased risk of placental abruption compared to White women, even when controlling for known coexisting risk factors. This risk increase is greatest at the earliest preterm gestational ages when outcomes are the poorest. The relative contribution of placental abruption to term births was greater in Black women, whereas the relative contribution of placental abruption to preterm birth was greater in White women.