Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T22:16:40.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reported parental behaviour and adult affective symptoms. 2. Mediating factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Bryan Rodgers
Bryan Rodgers*
Affiliation:
NH&MRC Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; MRC National Survey of Health and Development, University College London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Bryan Rodgers, NH&MRC Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Potential mediators of the modest association between retrospectively rated parental behaviour and adult affective symptoms in offspring were investigated in a national longitudinal study of a cohort followed to the age of 43. Personality measures from adolescence could account for a small part of this association. Personal relationships in adulthood were more strongly associated with both parental behaviour and symptoms: marital history, emotional support, social network and availability of help in a crisis. Poor parenting did not lead to a general vulnerability to later life events, and socio-economic status and financial hardship were not implicated in the link between parental behaviour and adult symptoms. However, parental affectionless control was associated with certain types of life stressors in adulthood, i.e. interpersonal as opposed to non-interpersonal life events. Collectively, aspects of personal relationships accounted for much of the elevated symptom levels in those rating parents as low on care or high on control. Findings were consistent with the notion that interpersonal competence is important in the continuity between childhood experience and adult mental health, but other possible interpretations are discussed.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 63 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Amato, P. R. & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and adult well-being: a meta-analysis. Journal of Marriage and the Family 53, 43–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Causes and Treatment. University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Bifulco, A. T., Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. O. (1987). Childhood loss of parent, lack of adequate parental care and adult depression: a replication. Journal of Affective Disorders 12, 115–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Birtchnell, J. (1993). Does recollection of exposure to poor maternal care in childhood affect later ability to relate? British Journal of Psychiatry 162, 335–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blatt, S. J., Wein, S. J., Chevron, E. & Quinlan, D. M. (1979). Parental representations and depression in normal young adults. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 88, 388–397.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and Loss, Vol. II. Separation: Anxiety and Anger. Hogarth: London.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1977). The making and breaking of affectional bonds. British Journal of Psychiatry 130, 201–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowlby, J. (1988). Developmental psychiatry comes of age. American Journal of Psychiatry 145, 1–10.Google ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W. & Harris, T. (1978). Social Origins of Depression: A Study of Psychiatric Disorder in Women. Tavistock Publications: London.Google Scholar
Brown, G. W., Andrews, B., Harris, T., Adler, Z. & Bridge, L. (1986). Social support, self-esteem and depression. Psychological Medicine 16, 813–831.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caspi, A. (1987). Personality in the life course. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53, 1203–1213.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Caspi, A. & Elder, G. H. (1988). Moving away from the world: life-course patterns of shy children. Developmental Psychology 24, 824–831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherry, N. (1976). Persistent job changing – is it a problem? Journal of Occupational Psychology 49, 203–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edn.Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Hillsdale N.J.Google Scholar
Cubis, J., Lewin, T. & Dawes, F. (1989). Australian adolescents' perceptions of their parents. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 23, 35–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cummings, M. & Cicchetti, D. (1990). Toward a transactional model of relations between attachment and depression. In Attachment in the Preschool Years: Theory, Research, and Intervention (ed. Greenberg, M. T., Cicchetti, D. and Cummings, E. M.), pp. 339–372. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1958). A short questionnaire for the measurement of two dimensions of personality. Journal of Applied Psychology 43, 14–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garmezy, N., Masten, A. S. & Tellegen, A. (1984). The study of stress and competence in children: a building block for developmental psychopathology. Child Development 55, 91–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammen, C., Marks, T., Mayol, A. & deMayo, R. (1985). Depressive self-schemas, life stress, and vulnerability to depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 94, 308–319.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, T., Brown, G. W. & Bifulco, A. (1987). Loss of parent in childhood and adult psychiatric disorder: the role of social class position and premarital pregnancy. Psychological Medicine 17, 163–183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, T., Brown, G. W. & Bifulco, A. (1990). Loss of parent in childhood and adult psychiatric disorder: a tentative overall model. Development and Psychopathology 2, 311–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, A. S. (1984). Interpreting the evidence on social support. Social Psychiatry 19, 49–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henderson, A. S. (1992). Social support and depression. In The Meaning and Measurement of Social Support (ed. Veiel, H. and Baumann, V.), pp. 85–92. Hemisphere: New York.Google Scholar
Henderson, A. S. & Brown, G. W. (1988). Social support: the hypothesis and the evidence. In Handbook of Social Psychiatry (ed. Henderson, A. S. and Burrows, G. D.), pp. 73–85. Elsevier: Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Henderson, S., Byrne, D. G. & Duncan-Jones, P. (1981). Neurosis and the Social Environment. Academic Press: Sydney.Google Scholar
Hickie, I., Parker, G., Wilhelm, K. & Tennant, C. (1991). Perceived interpersonal risk factors of non-endogenous depression. Psychological Medicine 21, 399–412.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
House, J. S., Landis, K. R. & Umberson, D. (1988). Social relationships and health. Science 241, 540–545.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobson, S., Fasman, J. & DiMascio, A. (1975). Deprivation in the childhood of depressed women. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 160, 5–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kandel, D. B. & Davies, M. (1986). Adult sequelae of adolescent depressive symptoms. Archives of General Psychiatry 43, 255–262.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, K. S., Kessler, R. C., Neale, M. C., Heath, A. C. & Eaves, L. J. (1993). The prediction of major depression in women: toward an integrated etiologic model. American Journal of Psychiatry 150, 1139–1148.Google ScholarPubMed
Kessler, R. C. & Magee, W. J. (1993). Childhood adversities and adult depression: basic patterns of association in a US national survey. Psychological Medicine 23, 679–690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kessler, R. C., Kendler, K. S., Heath, A., Neale, M. C. & Eaves, L. J. (1992). Social support, depressed mood, and adjustment to stress: a genetic epidemiologic investigation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 62, 257–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewinsohn, P. M., Weinstein, M. S. & Alper, T. (1970). A behavioral approach to the group treatment of depressed persons. A methodological contribution. Journal of Clinical Psychology 26, 525–532.3.0.CO;2-Y>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magnus, K., Diener, E., Fujita, F. & Pavot, W. (1993). Extraversion and neuroticism as predictors of objective life events: a longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65, 1046–1053.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mechanic, D. & Hansell, S. (1989). Divorce, family conflict, and adolescents well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 30, 105–116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monroe, S. M. & Steiner, S. C. (1986). Social support and psychopathology: interactions with preexisting disorder, stress, and personality. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 95, 29–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G. (1979 a). Parental deprivation and depression in a non-clinical group. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 13, 51–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G. (1979 b). Reported parental characteristics in relation to trait depression and anxiety levels in a non-clinical group. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 13, 260–264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G. (1979 c). Parental characteristics in relation to depressive disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry 134, 138–147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, G. (1983 a). Parental Overprotection: A Risk Factor in Psychosocial Development. Grune & Stratton: New York.Google Scholar
Parker, G. (1983 b). Parental ‘affectionless control’ as an antecedent to adult depression: a risk factor delineated. Archives of General Psychiatry 40, 956–960.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parker, G. (1988). Parental style and parental loss. In Handbook of Social Psychiatry (ed. Henderson, A. S. and Burrows, G. D.), pp. 15–25. Elsevier: Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Parker, G. (1992). Early environment. In Handbook of Affective Disorders, 2nd edn. (ed. Paykel, E. S.). pp. 171–183. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Parker, G., Tupling, H. & Brown, L. B. (1979). A parental bonding instrument. British Journal of Medical Psychology 52, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G. B., Barrett, E. A. & Hickie, I. B. (1992). From nurture to network: examining links between perceptions of parenting received in childhood and social bonds in adulthood. American Journal of Psychiatry 149, 877–885.Google ScholarPubMed
Parker, J. G. & Asher, S. R. (1987). Peer relations and later personal adjustment: are low-accepted children at risk? Psychological Bulletin 102, 357–389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perris, C., Maj, M., Perris, H. & Eisemann, M. (1985). Perceived parental rearing behaviour in unipolar and bipolar depressed patients. A verification study in an Italian sample. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 72, 172–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perris, C., Arrindell, W. A., Perris, H., Eisemann, M., van der Ende, J. & Von Knorring, L. (1986). Perceived depriving parental rearing and depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 148, 170–175.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pintner, R. & Forlano, G. (1938). Four retests of a personality inventory. Journal of Educational Psychology 29, 93–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pintner, R., Loftus, J. J., Forlano, G. & Alster, B. (1937). Aspects of Personality Inventory: Test and Manual. World Book Co.: Yonkers.Google Scholar
Plantes, M. M., Prusoff, B. A., Brennan, J. & Parker, G. (1988). Parental representations of depressed outpatients from a USA sample. Journal of Affective Disorders 15, 149–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabkin, J. G. & Struening, E. L. (1976). Life events, stress, and illness. Science 194, 1013–1020.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richter, J., Richter, G. & Eisemann, M. (1990). Parental rearing behavior, family atmosphere and adult depression: a pilot study with psychiatric inpatients. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 82, 219–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robins, C. J. & Block, P. (1988). Personal vulnerability, life events, and depressive symptoms: a test of a specific interactional model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54, 847–852.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robins, L. N. (1979). Follow-up studies. In Psychopathological Disorders of Childhood, 2nd edn (ed. Quay, H. C. and Werry, J. S.), pp. 483–513. John Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Robins, L. N., Locke, B. Z. & Regier, D. A. (1991). An overview of psychiatric disorders in America. In Psychiatric Disorders in America: The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study (ed. Robins, L. N. and Regier, D. A.), pp. 328–366. Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
Rodgers, B. (1990 a). Adult affective disorder and early environment. British Journal of Psychiatry 157, 539–550.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodgers, B. (1990 b). Behaviour and personality in childhood as predictors of adult psychiatric disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 31, 393–414.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodgers, B. (1991 a). Models of stress, vulnerability and affective disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders 21, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodgers, B. (1991 b). Socio-economic status, employment and neurosis. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 26, 104–114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodgers, B. (1994). Pathways between parental divorce and adult depression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 35, 1289–1308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodgers, B. (1996). Reported parental behaviour and adult affective symptoms, 1. Associations and moderating factors. Psychological Medicine 26, 51–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rodgers, B. & Mann, S. A. (1986). The reliability and validity of PSE assessments by lay interviewers: a national population survey. Psychological Medicine 16, 689–700.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M. (1970). A children's behaviour questionnaire for completion by parents. In Education, Health and Behaviour (ed. Rutter, M., Tizard, J. and Whitmore, K.), pp. 412–421. Longman: London.Google Scholar
Rutter, M. (1984). Continuities and discontinuities in socioemotional development. In Continuities and Discontinuities in Development (ed. Emde, R. N. and Harman, R. J.), pp. 41–68. Plenum Press: New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarason, B. R., Shearin, E. N., Pierce, G. R. & Sarason, I. G. (1987). Interrelations of social support measures: theoretical and practical implications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52, 813–832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarason, I. G. & Sarason, B. R. (1982). Concomitants of social support: attitudes, personality characteristics, and life experiences. Journal of Personality 50, 331–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scott, W. A., Scott, R. & McCabe, M. (1991). Family relationships and children's personality: a cross-cultural, cross-source comparison. British Journal of Social Psychology 30, 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seligman, M. E. P. & Peterson, C. (1986). A learned helplessness perspective on childhood depression: theory and research. In Depression in Young People: Developmental and Clinical Perspectives (ed. Rutter, M., Izard, C. E. and Read, P. B.), pp. 223–249. Guilford: New York.Google Scholar
Vaillant, G. E. (1978). Natural history of male psychological health. VI. Correlates of successful marriage and fatherhood. American Journal of Psychiatry 135, 653–659.Google ScholarPubMed
Watson, D. & Clark, L. A. (1984). Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin 96, 465–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed