Decades of research has documented that children exposed to maternal depression are at risk for psychiatric disorders. Research has identified several factors that are likely to contribute to the translation of risk of children with depressed mothers, including dysfunctioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis, parenting behavior, and infant cognitive skills. Knowledge about how these factors may develop is missing, and earlier studies have failed to distinguish mothers with depression only and those with comorbid disorder.