Bidirectional Links Between Maternal and Adolescent Depression: Separating Between and Within Dyad Differences

Maternal depression is strongly linked to the development of depression in youth; however, most studies have examined this association as a unidirectional pathway over time. Emerging literature suggests that youth psychopathology, such as externalizing behaviors, can also influence parents' mood and symptoms, yet, the impact of youth depressive symptoms on parent depressive symptoms remains poorly understood.

The current study included a sample of mother-child dyads (N = 2322) whose depressive symptoms were assessed across 5 time points, with measurements at 5 time points in early and middle adolescence. In terms of demographics, 47.7% of youth identified as female, 41.3% of participants identified as European American, 24.2% as African American, 12.4% as Latinx, and 12.8% as multiracial.

Results show no significant effect of between-subjects, stable differences across time, but time-specific, within-dyad differences in depressive symptoms indicated bidirectional pathways between maternal and youth depressive symptoms across early and middle adolescence.

The results highlight the critical importance of examining bidirectional pathways of risk, which may implicate family functioning and interventions for youth depression. Interventions for youth depression typically do not reliably incorporate parents; however, as the current findings suggest, both parent and youth depression are mutually reinforcing, such a bidirectional perspective could prove to be beneficial in treatment.