4.7 Article

The longitudinal relationship between child emotional disorder and parental mental health in the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health surveys 1999 and 2004

Journal

JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS
Volume 288, Issue -, Pages 58-67

Publisher

ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.03.059

Keywords

Emotional disorder; Depression; Anxiety; Mental health

Funding

  1. English Department of Health
  2. Welsh Assembly
  3. National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula
  4. Scottish Government

Ask authors/readers for more resources

The study revealed a bidirectional relationship between child and parent mental health, indicating that they mutually influence each other's psychological well-being. Effective intervention for one individual may benefit other family members.
Background: Research suggests parental psychopathology has an adverse effect on child mental health. However, due to the interactional nature of parent-child relationships and with a high rate of emotional disorders reported in school-age children, it is important to know whether the effect is reciprocal. Methods: We explored the longitudinal relationship between child and parent mental health in the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (N=7,100 child-parent dyads) and their three-year follow-ups. The Development and Well-Being Assessment with DSM-IV diagnostic criteria was used to measure child psychiatric diagnoses, while parental mental health was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression was used to explore the longitudinal association between child emotional disorder and parent mental health. Results: Parents of children who had an emotional disorder at baseline were more likely to have poor mental health three years later compared with parents whose children had no psychiatric diagnosis (33.3% versus 16.7%; crude odds ratio=2.52; adjusted odds ratio=2.19, 95% CI=1.58 to 3.05, p<0.001). Children of parents with poor mental health at baseline were more likely to develop an emotional disorder three years later compared with children whose parents had good mental health (5.2% versus 2.5%; crude odds ratio=2.08; adjusted odds ratio=1.63, 95% CI=1.18 to 2.25, p=0.003). Limitations: The findings of this research are limited by the survey data collected, the measures used and survey dropout. Conclusions: We detected a bi-directional relationship between child and parent mental health, suggesting that effective intervention for one individual may benefit other family members.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available