The Dynamic Interplay Between Parent Depressive Symptoms and Child Behavior Problems on Child Psychiatric Disorders: An Adoption Study

Abstract

The dynamic interplay between parents’ depressive symptoms and child behavior problems over time is not well understood. This dissertation used data from a prospective parent-offspring adoption design to estimate paths for birth parents’ psychopathology, birth mother depressive symptoms during pregnancy, and adoptive parents’ depressive symptoms across early and middle childhood on child behavior problems over time, including the contributions of infant negative emotionality and how these jointly contributed to subsequent child psychiatric disorders. Additionally, the bidirectional associations between parent depressive symptoms and child behavior problems were examined. Overall, results provided some support for general genetic risk for psychopathology and no evidence for prenatal depressive symptoms as a risk for child behavior problems or child psychiatric disorder. Additionally, there was little evidence for cross-lagged associations overtime between parent depressive symptoms and child behavior problems but there was evidence for overall associations between the two constructs overtime. Negative emotionality was a clear predictor of both child behavior problems and parent depressive symptoms. Taken together, these results suggest that there is a genetic risk posed to offspring by birth mother psychopathology and that child behavior problems, influenced by adoptive parent depressive symptoms, predicate child psychiatric disorders. Adoptive mother’s and father’s depressive symptoms each influence a child’s susceptibility to child behavior problems. Early intervention for parent depressive symptoms is thus warranted.