Table 2 Overview of Study Aim Analyses

1. To test the hypothesis that MB improves parenting and child self-regulatory skill acquisition through 54 months of age.

Women who received MB prenatally will exhibit more responsive parenting and their children will show larger increases in self-regulation over the preschool period.

1. Explore long-term effects of MB on maternal depressive symptom scores.

2. Measure the association between MB receipt and parenting practices.

3. Measure the association between MB receipt and child self-regulation.

2. To test hypotheses about the maternal mechanisms by which MB influences parenting and child self-regulation.

Intervention effects will be mediated by core skills targeted by MB, in particular, mothers’ increased awareness of thoughts and feelings, and mothers’ improved mood regulation.

1. Explore the extent to which mothers’ cognitive-behavioral skills (mediators) affect parenting practices.

2. Explore the extent to which these mediators affect child self-regulation.

3. To test whether fathers’ contributions and key sociodemographic factors moderate MB impact on the mother’s parenting and the child’s self-regulation.

More positive fathers’ mental health, greater father involvement in parenting, and stronger father-mother relationships will enhance MB’s positive effects on mother’s parenting and child outcomes.

1. Examine whether fathers’ mental health, involvement, and relationship with mothers moderate effects on mothers’ parenting practices.

2. Examine whether fathers’ mental health, involvement, and relationship with mothers moderate effects on child self-regulation.

3. Examine whether maternal minority race/ethnicity, lower socioeconomic status, and adolescent motherhood moderate MB’s preventive effects.