Deborah
Brauser
Maternal depression during an offspring’s childhood is significantly
associated with risky health behaviors during adolescence, new research
suggests.
A study of almost 3000 mother-adolescent pairs showed significantly more
«delinquent behaviors», including smoking, violence, and alcohol and illicit
drug use, in offspring of women who suffered from depression when their
children were 6 to 10 years of age.
Interestingly, there were no significant associations between maternal depressive
symptoms during a child’s adolescence and subsequent delinquent behaviors.
«We expected
that adolescents who had mothers who were depressed…would be most likely to be
engaging in risky health behaviors since those children may be missing both the
supervision and support that a parent can offer during an emotional time», principal investigator Ian Colman, PhD, Canada
Research Chair in mental health epidemiology and associate professor at the
University of Ottawa, told Medscape Medical News.
«So we were
surprised to see that maternal depression when the child was aged 6 to 10 was
actually more strongly associated with those risky health behaviors», he added.
Dr Colman noted that the study’s key clinical point is that maternal mental
health is important throughout a child’s life.
«Not
providing appropriate support and treatment for possible maternal mental
illness may have consequences for their children».
Lack of Parental Support
The investigators examined data on 2910 mother-youth pairs who resided in Canada
and who took part in the country’s National Longitudinal Survey of Children and
Youth.
All of the participating children were between 2 and 5 years of age from
1994 to 1995 and were followed until the age of 16 or 17 years. Mothers filled
out a variety of questionnaires about themselves, their spouses, and their
offspring. Children self-reported their information, including past-year risky
health behaviors, when they were between the ages of 10 and 11 years.
The shortened version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression
Scale was used to determine maternal depression symptoms when the children were
between the ages of 4 and 15 years.
All children were divided into five trajectory subgroups: the stable,
low-exposure reference group (47.9%), the mild maternal depressive symptoms
group (36%), the maternal depressive symptoms only during adolescence group
(10.4%), the maternal depressive symptoms during mid childhood group 4(4.0%),
and the recurrent maternal depressive symptoms group (1.7%).
Results showed that the adolescents
exposed to maternal depressive symptoms during mid childhood had numerous
delinquent behaviors. In fact, this was the only exposure group to show
significantly higher scores for use of common substances, including cigarettes,
alcohol, and marijuana, than the low-exposure reference group (P = .005).
They were also significantly more
likely to engage in both violent (P = .02) and nonviolent delinquent behaviors (P = .03) compared with the
low-exposure group and to use illicit substances
such hallucinogens or crack/cocaine (P < .05).
The recurrent maternal depressive symptoms group only had significantly
higher scores for nonviolent delinquent behaviors, such as stealing or
destruction of property, compared with the low- exposure group (P = .01).
Finally, the mid childhood exposure group started using cigarettes at an
earlier age (hazard ratio [HR], 2.15; P < .005), as well as alcohol,
marijuana, and hallucinogens (HRs, 1.43, 1.91, and 3.51, respectively; all, P
< .05) compared with the low-exposure group.
Dr Colman noted that the findings suggest that parenting factors during
middle childhood could predispose adolescents to future harmful behaviors.
«Aged 6 to
10 may be an important time because this is when children are developing
quickly in terms of emotional regulation and maintaining healthy social
relationships. Parents are very important in providing support during this
developmental period», he said.
«I think the
next step is to investigate whether interventions to prevent and/or treat
maternal depression will actually change behavior in their adolescents».
Posted by Kids Are Special in
Parents and in Behavior
You may also like:
- Parents attitude
- Teach Children By Example
- What the kids learn best from their parents
- Peaceful parenting raises a child who WANTS to behave
- This will change your behavior in 60 seconds
- Your Child is Not Your Equal: Why You Have to Be the Boss
- Why parents should talk a lot to their young kids and choose their words carefully
No comments:
Post a Comment