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DESIGN/METHODS: We conducted an analysis involving 3285 five to 14 year old children in the 1996 NLSY survey, a nationally representative sample of mothers and their children. Children were defined as being school mobile if they were age 5-9 and attended 2 or more elementary schools or if they were age 9.1-14 and had attended 3 or more schools. Outcomes were the total standard score of the BPI, as well as the externalizing and the internalizing subscales (mean 100, S.D. 15). Bivariate analyses examined the relationship between various demographic, environmental, and clinical variables known to be associated with the 3 BPI measures and school mobility. Multivariable analyses identified those factors independently associated with behavioral problems. Multiple regresion was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS: 14% of children were school mobile. Mean BPI scores for children that were school mobile were 108.2, 107.8, and 105.5 for the total, externalizing, and internalizing scales respectively, versus 103.7, 103.4, and 102.2 for non-mobile children. School mobile children were more likely to have a non-married mother, a mother with lower levels of involvement at school, and a mother with increased depressive symptoms as measured by the CESD. Maternal percpeption of school quality was lower for school mobile children than school non-mobile children. In multivariable analyses adjusting for demographic, environmental, and clinical variables, school mobility was independently associated with behavioral health problems for the total scale and the externalizing subscale (p<0.01), but not for the internalizing subscale.

CONCLUSIONS: School mobility is independently associated with total and externalizing behavioral problems in children ages 5 to 14. While the cross-sectional nature of the data limits conclusions about causality, policies or programs enacted to reduce school mobility may have a positive impact on behavioral health problems of children. Further research to elucidate this relationship is warranted.

Objective: To examine the relationship between mothers' depressive symptoms and medically attended injuries in their children and the potential mediating role of child behavior.

Design/Methods: A cohort of mother–child dyads from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth followed from 1992 to1994. The primary exposure variable was maternal depressive symptoms as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale in 1992. Child behavior was assessed by the Behavior Problems Index externalizing subscale. Logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between depressive symptoms, child behavior, and injury reported in the prior year in 1994.

Results: 94 medically attended injuries were reported in the 1106 children (8.5%); two-thirds were sustained in the home environment. Maternal depressive symptoms significantly increased the risk of child injury; injury risk increased 4% for every 1-point increase in depressive symptoms (adjusted OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.08, p = 0.02). Increasing maternal depressive symptoms also increased the risk of externalizing behavior problems (adjusted OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.09), but externalizing behavior problems did not significantly mediate the relationship between maternal symptoms and child injury.

Conclusions: Increasing depressive symptoms in mothers was associated with an increased risk of child injury. Child behavior did not significantly mediate the association between maternal depressive symptoms and child injury in this cohort. Greater recognition, referral, and treatment of depressive symptoms in mothers may have effects on child behavior and injury risk.