Parental Stress Links Mother’s Major Depressive Disorder With Child’s Mental Health, Depression

A new study led by researchers from the University of Texas Health Service Center at Houston showed that family mental health dynamics usually come full circle. They reported the two-way relationship between parental stress and a child's mental health symptoms and vice versa.

Their conclusions were based on a 10-year study that examined mother and child mental health symptoms, particularly on how near-avoidable challenges from raising a child cause parental stress that links maternal depression with child anxiety and depression.

Maternal Stress Can Affect the Whole Family

In the study, titled "Parenting Stress Mediates the Longitudinal Effect of Maternal Depression on Child Anxiety/Depressive Symptoms" published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, researchers said that a mother's mental health symptoms influence her child's mental health and vice versa.

They explained that the prospect of being a parent often causes stress to parents that may lead to maternal depression, Study Finds reported. In turn, this produces hostility and lack of warmth within their family environment and eventually will take a toll on their child's mental health.

Researchers used the data they collected for the ongoing Fragile Families study that began in 1998, examining familial relationships between unmarried parents and their children. Researchers said that the study can better inform services for support and intervention to resolve familial situations, particularly on mother and child dealing with anxiety and depression.

Senior study author Daphne Hernandez, Ph.D., said that a dual intervention to mother and child receiving treatment together coupled with a separate treatment plan might be the best approach to help them manage anxiety and depressive symptoms. They also emphasize that implementing strategies to lower parental stress is vital in helping both mother and child.

The Fragile Families Study

According to Science Daily, the Fragile Families study started as a collaboration between researchers from Princeton University and Columbia University from 1998 to 2000. The study is conducted on a large population-based sample across the US that focuses on the outcomes of familial relationships of unmarried parents and their children.

The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) sampled 4,898 children born between 1998 and 2000 in large US cities. The ratio of births to unmarried mothers was oversampled by a ratio of 3:1, listing a large number of Black, Hispanic, and low-income families.

Mothers were interviewed during the birth of their child and were evaluated again in the following years when the child turned 1, 3, 5, 9, 15, and 22 (in 2020). When the study began 22 years ago, it was designed to address four questions of great interest to researchers and policymakers.

These questions include what are the conditions and capabilities of unmarried parents, specifically the fathers, what kind of relationship do unmarried parents have, how do children in this family setup would far, and how do policies and environmental conditions affect the family as a whole.

The study is composed of core surveys that the mothers, fathers, caregivers, and the child need to answer. More so, collaborative projects of researchers have enriched the original study through the addition of new questions to the surveys and further questioning parents and children.

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