Parental Coping Socialization is Associated with Healthy and Anxious Early-Adolescents’ Neural and Real-World Response to Threat

The ways parents socialize their adolescents to cope with anxiety (i.e. coping socialization) may be instrumental in the development of threat processing and coping responses. Coping socialization may be important for anxious adolescents, as they show altered neural threat processing and over-reliance on disengaged coping (e.g., avoidance and distraction), which can maintain anxiety. We investigated whether coping socialization was associated with anxious and healthy adolescents’ neural response to threat, and whether neural activation was associated with disengaged coping. Healthy and clinically anxious early-adolescents (N=120; M=11.46 years; 71 girls) and a parent engaged in interactions designed to elicit adolescents’ anxiety and parents’ response to adolescents’ anxiety. Parents’ use of reframing and problem-solving statements was coded to measure coping socialization. In a subsequent visit, we assessed adolescents’ neural response to threat words during a neuroimaging task. Adolescents’ disengaged coping was measured using ecological momentary assessment. Greater coping socialization was associated with lower anterior insula and perigenual cingulate activation in healthy adolescents and higher activation in anxious adolescents. Coping socialization was indirectly associated with less disengaged coping for anxious adolescents through neural activation. Findings suggest that associations between coping socialization and early adolescents’ neural response to threat differ depending on clinical status and have implications for anxious adolescents’ coping

Understanding the sex difference in vulnerability to adolescent depression: an examination of child and parent characteristics

This study examined sex differences in risk factors associated with adolescent depression in a large sample of boys and girls. Moderation and mediation explanatory models of the sex difference in likelihood of depression were examined. Findings indicate that the factors associated with depression in adolescent boys and girls are quite similar. All of the variables considered were associated with depression, but sex did not moderate the impact of vulnerability factors on likelihood of depression diagnosis. However, negative self-perceptions in the domains of achievement, global self-worth, and physical appearance partially mediated the relationship between sex and depression. Further, girls had higher levels of positive self-perceptions in interpersonal domains that acted as suppressors and reduced the likelihood of depression in girls. These findings suggest that girls' higher incidence of depression is due in part to their higher levels of negative self-perceptions, whereas positive interpersonal factors serve to protect them from depressive episodes

Parental Depressive Feelings, Parental Support, and the Serotonin Transporter Gene as Predictors of Adolescent Depressive Feelings: A Latent Growth Curve Analysis

Parental support and parental depressive feelings are found to be associated with depressive feelings in adolescent boys and girls, but results are inconsistent. In addition, the 5-HTTLPR genotype has been found to interact with environmental stressors in predicting adolescents’ depressive feelings, but this has not been examined longitudinally. Therefore, the present study examined the relationships between parental support, parental depressive feelings, and adolescent depressive feelings. In addition, the relationships between the 5-HTTLPR genotype and adolescent depressive feelings were explored, as well as gene-environment interactions. Adolescents (N = 306; Girls = 53.3%; Mage T1 = 13.4) filled out questionnaires at five annual waves and provided saliva samples for DNA. Latent growth curve modelling (LGCM) was used to examine the baseline level and the change in depressive feelings over time. Maternal support was related to baseline levels of depressive feelings in girls, whereas paternal support was related to baseline levels in boys. Paternal depressive feelings were only related to boys’ depressive feelings at baseline, and maternal depressive feelings were not related to any outcome measures. Furthermore, no associations were found between 5-HTTLPR genotype and adolescent depressive feelings, and no gene-environment interactions emerged. Limitations of the study and implications of the findings are discussed

Intergenerational Transmission of Multiple Problem Behaviors: Prospective Relationships between Mothers and Daughters

Much of the research examining intergenerational continuity of problems from mother to offspring has focused on homotypic continuity (e.g., depression), despite the fact that different types of mental health problems tend to cluster in both adults and children. It remains unclear whether mothers with multiple mental health problems compared to mothers with fewer or no problems are more likely to have daughters with multiple mental health problems during middle childhood (ages 7 to 11). Six waves of maternal and child data from the Pittsburgh Girls Study (n = 2,451) were used to examine the specificity of effects of maternal psychopathology on child adjustment. Child multiple mental health problems comprised disruptive behavior, ADHD symptoms, depressed mood, anxiety symptoms and somatic complaints, while maternal multiple mental health problems consisted of depression, prior conduct problems and somatic complaints. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) was used to examine the prospective relationships between mother’s single and multiple mental health problems and their daughter’s single and multiple mental health problems across the elementary school-aged period (ages 7–11 years). The results show that multiple mental health problems in the mothers predicted multiple mental health problems in the daughters even when earlier mental health problem of the daughters, demographic factors, and childrearing practices were controlled. Maternal low parental warmth and harsh punishment independently contributed to the prediction of multiple mental health problems in their daughter, but mediation analyses showed that the contribution of parenting behaviors to the explanation of girls’ mental health problems was small

Maternal depressive symptoms and adolescent academic attainment: Testing pathways via parenting and self-control

Maternal depression is associated with reduced academic attainment in children, however, it is not clear how this association comes about. Depressive symptoms are associated with impairment in social roles including parenting. Children's self-control is an important contributor to academic attainment and is influenced by parenting. We therefore hypothesised that impaired parenting and children's self-control may mediate links between maternal depression and children's academic attainment. Data were from a brief longitudinal study (3 waves) of UK children aged 11–12 years and their mothers. Higher maternal depressive symptoms at baseline were associated with lower academic attainment in children assessed one year later. There was evidence to support an indirect effect of maternal depressive symptoms on children's academic attainment through the mother-child and the father-child relationship which, in turn, reduced children's self-control. These influences were independent of socio-economic deprivation. A direct effect of maternal depression on children's academic attainment was also observed