Exposure to Parental Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Analysis on the Association with Adolescents' Depressive Symptoms and Adjustment Problems

ABSTRACT: Objective: Parental depressive symptoms have been associated with depressive symptoms and adjustment problems in adolescents. However, longitudinal studies assessing both mothers' and fathers' depressive symptoms over time and their association with adolescents' outcomes are sparse. Methods: Data were obtained from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. A total of 1364 children and families were followed from the child's birth until the age of 15 years. Adolescents' depressive symptoms were evaluated via self-reported questionnaire at ages 11 to 15 years. Adjustment problems at 15 years of age were defined as high internalizing and/or externalizing problems. Parental depressive symptoms were assessed several times during the study period. Trajectories created using partitional clustering analyses were entered in logistic regression models to predict adolescents' outcomes. Results: After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, adolescents' outcomes were associated with every additional time point of reported maternal (depressive symptoms: odds ratio [OR] = 1.2, p = 0.001; adjustment problems: OR = 1.1, p = 0.003) and paternal depressive symptoms (adjustment problems: OR = 1.2, p = 0.027). When maternal and paternal depressive symptom trajectories were combined, we found adolescents' depressive symptoms to be significantly associated with mother elevated and stable subclinical father scores (OR = 3.3, p = 0.003) and girls (OR = 5.4, p
Source: Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics - Category: Child Development Tags: Original Article Source Type: research