Mother-Adolescent Similarity in Depression in Rural China: The Roles of Family and Individual Characteristics

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Objectives: In China, depression is generally more prevalent in rural populations than in urban counterparts, especially among mothers and adolescents from rural backgrounds. Many of these adolescents are ‘left-behind adolescents’, whose parent(s) migrate(s) to domestic urban regions for career reasons for a long term. Although a rich body of research has proved a familial transmission of depression between mothers and adolescents on the psycho-social level, a limited number of studies around the world have considered family and individual characteristics from the perspective of moderating mechanism. The current study aimed to respectively compare the depression levels of mothers and adolescents from different rural subgroups and examine whether secure attachment, self-control, and positive parenting play moderating roles in the association between maternal and adolescent depression.
Methods: We used data from the 2012 wave of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) that provided necessary family and individual indicators. We first conducted one-way ANOVA tests to examine the mean-level of the group differences in maternal depression and adolescent depression (measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale) while we used a multivariate hierarchical linear regression to examine the moderating models. The sample consisted of 532 adolescents (Mage=13.03 years; 44.90% girls) and their mothers from rural backgrounds. We divided the samples into non-left-behind adolescents (NLBA), completely-left-behind adolescents (CLBA, neither of parents present), and partially-left-behind adolescents (PLBA, only mother present) (46.20%, 33.80%, and 19.90% respectively).
Results: Mothers of PLBC showed significantly higher depression levels than mothers of NLBC and mothers of CLBC but no significant group differences in adolescent depression emerged. Moreover, maternal depression remained significantly associated with adolescent depression after controlling demographical factors (adolescent age, gender, parental education, family type, and family income) and family/individual characteristics (secure attachment, self-control, and positive parenting), moderated only by positive parenting. Also, only secure attachment and self-control had significant negative associations with adolescent depression while positive parenting was not a direct significant predictor.
Conclusions: Left-behind mothers (mothers of PLBC) were particularly at risk for depression. The mother-adolescent similarity in depression was obvious but securely-attached and well-self-controlled adolescents usually manifested fewer depressive behaviors. Adolescents of depressed mothers reported lower depression levels when they perceived more positive parenting practices of their primary caregivers.

Authors

• Ruwen Liang, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)
  Presenting Author

• Karla Van Leeuwen, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author