Maternal Supervision of Children During Their First 3 Years of Life: The Influence of Maternal Depression and Child Gender

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined the effect of child gender and maternal depressive symptoms on routine supervisory practices of mothers longitudinally. METHOD: Self-report supervision practices were obtained at various time points from 3 months through 3 years of age. RESULTS: From 3 to 36 months, the quantity of time mothers reported supervising decreased from 7.1 to 6.3 hours, and the proportion of time spent in an intense style decreased from 63 to 46%, whereas that spent in a peripheral style increased from 14 to 32%. Mothers reported more time supervising girls and a greater proportion of this was in an intense style. Mothers with elevated depressive symptoms reported more time supervising but a lower proportion in an intense style. CONCLUSION: Over the first 36 months of life, routine patterns of supervision change and these vary as a function of maternal depression symptoms and child gender. Implications for child injury risk are discussed.