What is it about?

This population-based study describes the depression trajectories of Chinese youth from 10 to 21 years old, and their mothers' and fathers' depression trajectories at the same time. We identified about one-third of families in which no family members were depressed; whereas in about two-thirds of the families, different members indicated varying levels of risks. When adolescents presented with elevated depressive symptoms, at least one parent (i.e., mother) was jointly in an elevated symptom trajec- tory group, but not vice versa

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Why is it important?

Adolescence marks the age with the highest risk for depression onset and adolescent depression often occurs in a joint family system, however, no research has jointly examined all family members' depression in a longitudinal mapping. This study fills important gaps in research to understand the dynamic nature of depression from a family systems lens.

Perspectives

This study calls for clinicians to rethink it may not just be adolescents but also parents at high risk, and prevention and intervention need to incorporate parents

Dr. Xiang Zhou
Purdue University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Family depression profiles among adolescents and their parents: A group-based multitrajectory modeling., Journal of Family Psychology, October 2021, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/fam0000849.
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