Parent and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: The Role of Parental Attributions

Abstract

This study examined whether negative parental attributions for adolescent behaviour mediate the association between parental and adolescent depressive symptoms, and whether this relationship is moderated by adolescent gender. Mothers and fathers and 124 adolescents (76 girls and 48 boys; ages 14 to 18) participated. Adolescents were primarily Caucasian, and varied in the level of depressive symptoms (with 27% of the sample meeting diagnostic criteria for a current unipolar depressive disorder). Parents and adolescents completed measures of depressive symptoms, and participated in a videotaped problem-solving discussion. After the discussion, each parent watched the videotape and, at 20s intervals, offered attributions for their adolescent's behaviour. Adolescent gender moderated the relation between parental attributions and adolescent depressive symptoms, with stronger associations for female adolescents. For both mothers and fathers, both parental depressive symptoms and negative attributions about the adolescent's behaviour made unique contributions to the prediction of depressive symptoms in adolescent females. There also was evidence that negative attributions partially mediated the link between depressive symptoms in mothers and adolescent daughters. The results are interpreted as consistent with parenting as a partial mediator between parental and adolescent depressive symptoms, and suggest that adolescent girls may be particularly sensitive to parents' negative interpretations of their behaviour. Keywords depression; attributions; parent-adolescent relationsA recent review of epidemiological studies reported that the prevalence rates of depression in girls and boys between 13 and 18 years of age are 5.9% and 4.6% respectively (Costello, Erkanli, & Angold, 2006). Not only is adolescent depression relatively common, it also is associated concurrently with high rates of comorbid psychiatric disorders (Kovacs, 1996), significant psychosocial impairment (Birmaher, Ryan, Williamson, & Brent, 1996), and increased risk of suicide (Rao, Weissman, Martin, & Hammond, 1993). Adolescent depression is, moreover, predictive of a wide range of long-term psychosocial impairments including recurrent depressive disorders in early adulthood (Aalto-Setälä, Marttunen, TuulioHenriksson, Poikolainen, & Lönnqvist, 2002;Lewinsohn, Rohde, Klein, & Seeley, 1999 (Roberts, Andrews, Lewinsohn, & Hops, 1990) and available evidence suggests that these youth present with many of the same social, clinical, and behavioral problems as do those who meet diagnostic criteria (Gotlib, Lewinsohn, & Seeley, 1995;Pine, Cohen, Cohen, & Brook, 1999). These adolescents with subdiagnostic depressive symptomatology also are at substantially increased risk of developing depressive disorders (Gotlib et al., 1995;Pine et al., 1999). The prevalence and impairment associated with adolescent depressive symptoms clearly highlight the importance of research addressing mechanisms that place youth at risk.One factor that has been consistently linked to d...

Maternal and Paternal Attributions in the Prediction of Boys' Behavior Problems Across Time

“…However, only father negative attributions significantly predicted behavior problems above and beyond ADHD status and mother attributions at Time 1, and continued to predict subsequent behavior problems at Time 2 with initial levels of behavior problems also controlled. The relations of negative parental attributions to boys' behavior problems are not surprising, and replicate previous research across range of child behavior problems (e.g., Chen et al, 2009;Markel & Wiener, 2012;Werner, 2012). However, compared to the previous literature, the strength of the current study is its equal focus on fathers and mothers, and our results support the importance of father attributions, at least for sons.…”

“…Compared to mothers, fathers make unique contributions to aspects of child development such as social skills (Kaiser, McBurnett, & Pfiffner, 2011), empathy (Pleck, 1997), and adjustment in adolescence (Leidy et al, 2011). In addition, mother and father attributions for child behavior may not only be different (e.g., Chen, Seipp, & Johnston, 2008;Lansford et al, 2011) but also may be differentially associated with child outcomes (Chen, Johnston, Sheeber, & Leve, 2009;Markel & Wiener, 2012;Werner, 2012). Differential relations with mother and father attributions have been found for both internalizing and externalizing child problems.…”

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Korean American Parental Depressive Symptoms and Parental Acceptance–Rejection and Control

“…Mothers who reported high depressive symptoms blamed their daughters more while they gave less credits to positive behaviors, whereas high depressive symptoms did not influence fathers' behavior toward their daughters (Chen, Johnston, & Sheeber, 2009). These differences may relate to the adolescent's gender.…”