(PS14-100) Vocal Emotional Expressions in Mothers with and Without a History of Major Depressive Disorder

Depression is associated with alterations in prosody when speaking (e.g., less variation in pitch, slowed speech rate), but less is known about its impact on emotional prosody. This is particularly important to investigate in parent-child contexts, as parental modeling of emotion may contribute to the intergenerational transmission of depression risk. The study asked 81 mothers of preschool-aged children (with and without a history of major depressive disorder during their child’s lifetime) to portray child-relevant sentences in neutral, angry, and happy tones of voice (4860 recordings). We used linear mixed effects modeling to examine whether groups’ portrayals were acoustically or perceptually different, in speech analyses and listener ratings. Mothers with a history of depression expressed happiness with less range in pitch, ꭓ²(2) = 6.84, p = .03, and a slower speech rate, ꭓ²(2) = 5.93, p < .05 (i.e., a slower, more monotonous voice), than mothers with no history of depression. Listener ratings of expression quality did not differ across maternal groups. However, across groups, happy exemplars with less range in pitch were rated as less emotionally intense, χ²(1) = 29.32, p < .001, less recognizably happy, χ²(1) = 31.00, p < .001, and less authentically happy, χ²(1) = 30.08, p < .001; slower speech rate was associated with opposite perceptual ratings. Results suggest that a history of depression may influence maternal vocal expression of happiness, but that its impact on listeners’ perceptions may depend on mothers’ idiosyncratic use of acoustic cues.