A prospective study in the area of developmental psychopathology and depression was conducted to determine whether an additive pathological effect upon offspring existed when psychosocial disadvantage and maternal depression were combined. Differences in psychiatric epidemiology and psychological outcome were investigated in 27 children of latency age (6.7 years). Children (12 boys and 15 girls) of normal white middle class mothers were compared with children of depressed mothers from white middle class and black lower class populations. Subjects were recruited from the Washington, D.C., area and evaluated at the Laboratory of Developmental Psychology. Mothers were divided into three comparison groups differentiated on the basis of race, socioeconomic status, and diagnostic status. Results indicated that the prevalence of child psychiatric disorder among the black lower class population was more than double that of the other two groups. Childhood depressive diagnoses were specific to the black lower class group, and aggression was found to be the most significant predictor of a child's having a depressed mother. Findings are discussed in terms of a developmental typology of childhood depression and nosological distinctions within the depressive diagnosis. (Author/BJD)