The unique effect of paternal depressive symptoms on adolescent functioning: Associations with gender and father–adolescent relationship closeness.

Abstract

Prospective, longitudinal data from a community sample of 451 families were used to assess the unique contribution of paternal depressive symptoms to adolescent functioning. Results indicated that paternal depressive symptoms were significantly related to subsequent depressive symptoms in adolescent offspring; this association remained significant after controlling for previous adolescent depressive symptoms, maternal depressive symptoms, gender, and family demographic variables. Adolescent gender and perception of father-adolescent relationship closeness moderated this association such that paternal depressive symptoms were positively associated with adolescent depressive symptoms for girls whose relations with fathers lacked closeness. These findings add to a growing literature on the interpersonal mechanisms through which depression runs in families, highlighting the need for future investigation of paternal mental health, adolescent gender, and intrafamily relationship quality in relation to adolescent development. Keywordsdepressive symptoms; father-adolescent relations; adolescence; fathers; gender Throughout their lives, children of depressed parents are at risk for a number of social and emotional adjustment difficulties (for review, see Goodman & Gotlib, 2002). Fathers have been dramatically underrepresented in this research (Phares, 1992), although recent findings indicate that paternal depression may be related to adolescent maladjustment (e.g., Connell & Goodman, 2002). Of the limited literature on paternal depression and adolescent development, few have controlled for the influence of maternal depression (see Kane & Garber, 2004), and most have been limited to cross-sectional design (Hammen, 2008). Using longitudinal data from a community sample, this project examines the unique contribution of paternal depressive symptoms to adolescent functioning and whether this process is moderated by adolescent gender and/or adolescent perception of father-adolescent relationship closeness.Subdiagnostic depression during adolescence has a high recurrence rate and been linked to a wide range of psychopathology including major depression, anxiety disorders, and suicide (Fergusson, Horwood, Ridder, & Beautrais, 2005 Research on child and adolescent adjustment has historically focused on attributes of the mother, limiting the understanding of fathers' role in offspring psychopathology (Phares, 1992). However, a growing body of work has associated paternal depression with adolescent psychological problems, and findings indicate that the degree of offspring risk is comparable to that associated with maternal depression (for recent meta-analyses, see Connell & Goodman, 2002;Kane & Garber, 2004). Some data suggest that paternal mental health may moderate the well-documented association between maternal depression and child psychopathology (see Goodman & Gotlib, 2002). Other results indicate the need for future research to examine the effect of paternal depression on adolescent development after controlling for ...

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