This study, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, examines the correlation among maternal substance abuse, depression, and criminality and their impact on child behavior problems within a sample of African American and White mothers. Results show that maternal depression is the strongest predictor of child behavior problems. Race was significantly associated with income, a mother's age at the time of her first child's birth, and depression. Implications for practice include the need for practitioners to prioritize the treatment of maternal depression when working with children who have behavior problems and to not look at race as a cultural descriptor alone, but rather to consider how it may be associated with other risk factors for child behavior problems.
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