BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Developmental Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1514024
This article is part of the Research TopicMaternal Psychopathology in Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period and Its Impact on Infant and Child DevelopmentView all 7 articles
How parental depression influences the development of adolescent depression: based on data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS)
Provisionally accepted
Ruyue Zhai
Shaoqing Yang*- School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
This study aims to explore the natural developmental patterns of paternal, maternal, and adolescent depression, as well as the predictive effects of parental depression trajectories on adolescent depression trajectories through a longitudinal survey. Methods: Based on the China Family Panel Studies, a total of 1,378 adolescents and their parents were ultimately included in the study. The adolescents and their parents underwent up to three waves of assessments, with each wave separated by two years, spanning six years (from 2016 to 2020). LGM was used to examine the developmental trajectories of paternal, maternal, and adolescent depression, and the predictive effects of parental depression trajectories on adolescent depression trajectories. The results of LGM revealed an upward trend in the longitudinal measurement of paternal depression (β=0.483, p<0.001) and adolescent depression (β=0.318, p<0.001), while maternal depression showed a downward trend (β=-0.340, p=0.015). The results of the parallel process model indicated that the intercept and slope of paternal depression significantly predicted the intercept and slope of adolescent depression, respectively (βIntercept=0. 169, p=0.015; βSlope=0.488, p=0.008). However, the intercept of paternal depression did not significantly predict the slope of adolescent depression (β=0.129, p>0.05). Similarly, the intercept and slope of maternal depression significantly predicted the intercept and slope of adolescent depression, respectively (βIntercept=0.253, p<0.001; βSlope=0.371, p=0.006). The intercept of maternal depression did not significantly predict the slope of adolescent depression (β=0.033) Conclusion: Both paternal and maternal depression should be given equal attention. The developmental trajectories of both paternal and maternal depression influence the developmental trajectory of adolescent depression.
Keywords: Maternal Depression, adolescent depression, Development trajectory, Paternal depression, Latent growth analysis
Received: 19 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhai and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shaoqing Yang, School of Psychology and Mental Health, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.