BackHome
Refresh: OffView Personal Schedule
Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Poster #152 - Understanding the etiology of parental depressive symptoms and parental negativity.

Sat, March 23, 2:30 to 3:45pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Cross-sectional and longitudinal work has amassed evidence suggesting that an array of negative parenting behaviors characterized by intrusiveness, rejection, withdrawal, and psychological aggression account for associations between parental depression and adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms (e.g., Gruhn et al., 2016; Kuckertz, et al., 2018; Reising et al., 2013). Although parental negativity is assumed to be a causal factor in this process, much of the evidence for this has been from studies of biologically related parents and children and therefore cannot rule out passive gene-environment correlation (rGE), in which the genes parents provide to their children also impact the rearing environment they provide (Plomin et al., 1977; Neiderhiser et al., 2007). In other words, if parental depression and parental negativity have common heritable influences, we cannot conclude that parental negativity is what causes the link between parental depression and offspring outcomes. Assessing the degree to which parental depression and parental negativity share a common etiology is a key step in understanding whether parental negativity is a causal mechanism of risk. The present study uses a sample of twin parents of adolescents (Neiderhiser & Lichtenstein, 2008) to assess the contributions of genetic, shared environmental, and non-shared environmental influences on the covariation of parental depressive symptoms and parental negativity. Pairs of same-sex twin parents of an adolescent (N = 909, n = 386 MZ pairs, 63% female, Mage = 44.89 years, SD = 4.89). Within families, adolescents were same-sex and within 4 years of age of one another (Mage = 15.75 years, SD = 2.40; 49% female). Twins reported on their own depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale. Twins also reported on their harsh or conflictual parenting using the Parent-Child Relationships Scale, Parent Discipline Behavior Inventory, and the Expressed Emotion measures. Factor scores were created for parental negativity and were significantly correlated with depressive symptoms (r = 0.29, p < 0.001). A correlated bivariate factor model indicated that parental depressive symptoms and parental negativity were explained by genetic and nonshared environmental influences and that estimates differed for mothers (A = 36% E = 64%; A = 33% E = 67%, respectively) and fathers (A = 31% E = 68%; A = 38% E = 61%, respectively). However, there were no gender differences in the correlation between the two constructs, with a significant genetic (rg = .48, p < .01) and nonshared environmental (re = .19, p < .01) correlation between the two constructs. There was no contribution of shared environmental influences to either parental depressive symptoms or to parental negativity, thus there was no significant contribution of shared environmental influences to the covariance. Results indicate that the magnitude of genetic and nonshared environmental influences on parental depressive symptoms and parental negativity differ for mothers and fathers, but their covariation is attributable to comparable levels of genetic and nonshared environmental influences. Further, significant genetic influences suggest that passive rGE partially explains the link between parental depressive symptoms and parental negativity.

Authors