Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:20:05.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Intergenerational transmission and continuity of stress and depression: depressed women and their offspring in 20 years of follow-up

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2011

C. Hammen ,
N. A. Hazel ,
P. A. Brennan  and
J. Najman
C. Hammen*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology, Los Angeles, CA, USA
N. A. Hazel
Affiliation:
University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, USA
P. A. Brennan
Affiliation:
Emory University, Department of Psychology, Atlanta, GA, USA
J. Najman
Affiliation:
University of Queensland, School of Public Health, Brisbane, Australia
*
*Address for correspondence: C. Hammen, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Children of depressed mothers not only have higher risk of depression, but also may experience both elevated and continuing exposure to stressful experiences. The study tested hypotheses of the intergenerational transmission of stress and depression and examined the role of early childhood adversity and maternal depression in the interplay between youth depression and stress over 20 years.

Method

In a longitudinal community study of 705 families selected for history or absence of maternal depression, mothers and youth were studied from pregnancy to age 5 years and at youth ages 15 and 20 years. Youth and maternal depression were assessed with diagnostic interviews, acute and chronic interview-based stress assessment in the youth and contemporaneous measures of childhood adversity obtained between pregnancy and youth age 5 years.

Results

Regression analyses indicated evidence of intergenerational transmission and continuity of depression over time, continuity of acute and chronic stress and reciprocal predictive associations between depression and stress. Maternal depression and exposure to adversities by child's age 5 years contributed to the youth's continuing experiences of depression and stress. An overall path model was consistent with stress continuity and intergenerational transmission and highlighted the mediating role of age 15 youth chronic interpersonal stress.

Conclusions

Youth of depressed mothers are at risk not only for depression but also for continuing experiences of acute and chronic stress from childhood to age 20. The associations among depression and stress are bidirectional and portend continuing experiences of depression and further stress.

Keywords

Continuity of stressdepressionintergenerational transmission of depressionstressstress generation
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 42 , Issue 5 , May 2012 , pp. 931 - 942
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adrian, C, Hammen, C (1993). Stress exposure and stress generation in children of depressed mothers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 61, 354–359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, GW, Harris, T (1978). Social origins of depression: a reply. Psychological Medicine 8, 577–588.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, GW, Harris, TO (2008). Depression and the serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR polymorphism: a review and a hypothesis concerning gene-environment interaction. Journal of Affective Disorders 111, 1–12.Google Scholar
First, MB, Spitzer, RL, Gibbon, M, Williams, JBW (1995). Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders. American Psychiatric Press: Washington DC.Google Scholar
Garber, J, Clarke, GN, Weersing, VR, Beardslee, WR, Brent, DA, Gladstone, TR, DeBar, LL, Lynch, FL, D'Angelo, E, Hollon, SD, Shamseddeen, W, Iyengar, S (2009). Prevention of depressive in at-risk adolescents: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association 301, 2215–2224.Google Scholar
Gibb, BE, Butler, AC, Beck, JS (2003). Childhood abuse, depression, and anxiety in adult psychiatric outpatients. Depression and Anxiety 17, 226–228.Google Scholar
Goodman, SH (2007). Depression in mothers. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 3, 107–135.Google Scholar
Goodman, SH, Gotlib, IH (1999). Risk for psychopathology in the children of depressed mothers: a developmental model for understanding mechanisms of transmission. Psychological Review 106, 458–490.Google Scholar
Green, J, McLaughlin, K, Berglund, P, Gruber, M, Sampson, N, Zaslavsky, A, Kessler, R (2010). Childhood adversities and adult psychiatric disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication I: associations with first onset of DSM-IV disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry 67, 113–123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammen, C (1991). The generation of stress in the course of unipolar depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 100, 555–561.Google Scholar
Hammen, C (2005). Stress and depression. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 1, 293–319.Google Scholar
Hammen, C (2006). Stress generation in depression: reflections on origins, research, and future directions. Journal of Clinical Psychology 62, 1065–1082.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammen, C (2009). Children of depressed parents. In Handbook of Depression, 2nd edition (ed. Gotlib, I. andHammen, C.), pp. 275–297. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Hammen, C, Brennan, PA (2001). Depressed adolescents of depressed and nondepressed mothers: tests of an interpersonal impairment hypothesis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 69, 284–294.Google Scholar
Hammen, C, Brennan, PA (2003). Severity, chronicity, and timing of maternal depression and risk for adolescent offspring diagnoses in a community sample. Archives of General Psychiatry 60, 253–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammen, C, Brennan, P, Keenan-Miller, D (2008). Patterns of adolescent depression to age 20: the role of maternal depression and youth interpersonal dysfunction. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 36, 1189–1198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammen, C, Burge, D, Burney, E, Adrian, C (1990). Longitudinal study of diagnoses in children of women with unipolar and bipolar affective disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 47, 1112–1117.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hammen, C, Henry, R, Daley, S (2000). Depression and sensitization to stressors among young women as a function of childhood adversity. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 68, 782–787.Google Scholar
Hammen, C, Kim, E, Eberhart, N, Brennan, P (2009). Chronic and acute stress and the prediction of major depression in women. Depression and Anxiety 26, 718–723.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harkness, KL, Bruce, AE, Lumley, MN (2006). The role of childhood abuse and neglect in the sensitization to stressful life events in adolescent depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 115, 730–741.Google Scholar
Hazel, N, Hammen, C, Brennan, P, Najman, J (2008). Continued stress exposure accounts for the association between early adversity and adolescent depression. Psychological Medicine 38, 581–589.Google Scholar
Joormann, J, Eugene, F, Gotlib, I (2009). Parental depression: impact on children and mechanisms underlying transmission of risk. In Handbook of Adolescent Depression (ed. Nolen-Hoeksema, S. and Hilt, L.), pp. 441–472. Taylor & Francis: New York.Google Scholar
Karg, K, Burmeister, M, Shedden, K, Sen, S (2011). The serotonin transporter promoter variant (5-HTTLPR), stress and depression meta-analysis revisited. Archives of General Psychiatry 68, 444–454.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keeping, JD, Najman, JM, Morrison, J, Western, JS, Andersen, MJ, Williams, GM (1989). A prospective longitudinal study of social, psychological, and obstetrical factors in pregnancy: response rates and demographic characteristics of the 8,556 respondents. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 96, 289–297.Google Scholar
Kessler, RC (1997). The effects of stressful life events on depression. Annual Review of Psychology 48, 191–214.Google Scholar
Kessler, RC, Magee, WJ (1993). Childhood adversities and adult depression: basic patterns of association in a US national survey. Psychological Medicine 23, 679–690.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, DN, Lewinsohn, PM, Rohde, P, Seeley, JR, Olino, TM (2005). Psychopathology in the adolescent and young adult offspring of a community sample of mothers and fathers with major depression. Psychological Medicine 35, 353–365.Google Scholar
Lieb, R, Isensee, B, Hofler, M, Pfister, H, Wittchen, UH (2002). Parental major depression and the risk of depression and other mental disorders in offspring: a prospective-longitudinal community study. Archives of General Psychiatry 59, 365–374.Google Scholar
Liu, RT, Alloy, LB (2010). Stress generation in depression: a systematic review of the empirical literature and recommendations for future study. Clinical Psychology Review 30, 582–593.Google Scholar
Monroe, S, Slavich, G, Georgiades, K (2009). The social environment and life stress in depression. In Handbook of Depression, 2nd edition (ed. Gotlib, I. and Hammen, C.) pp. 340–360. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Muthén, LK, Muthén, BO (2010). Mplus User's Guide. Sixth edition. Muthén & Muthén: Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Orvaschel, H (1995). Schedule for Affective Disorder and Schizophrenia for School-age Children- Epidemiologic version-5. Center for Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University: Ft. Lauderdale, FL.Google Scholar
Rao, U, Hammen, C, Daley, S (1999). Continuity of depression during the transition to adulthood: a 5-year longitudinal study of young women. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 38, 908–915.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rudolph, K, Flynn, M (2007). Childhood adversity and youth depression: the role of gender and pubertal status. Development and Psychopathology 19, 497–521.Google Scholar
Shih, JH, Abela, JRZ, Starrs, C (2009). Cognitive and interpersonal predictors of stress generation in children of affectively ill parents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 2, 195–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, M, Augustyn, M, Young, R, Zuckerman, B (2009). The relationship between maternal depression, in-home violence and use of physical punishment: what is the role of child behavior? Archives of Disease in Childhood 94, 138–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spanier, GB (1976). Measuring dyadic adjustment: new scales for assessing the quality of marriage and similar dyads. Journal of Marriage and the Family 38, 15–28.Google Scholar
Taylor, C, Guterman, N, Lee, S, Rahouz, P (2009). Intimate partner violence, maternal stress, nativity, and risk for maternal maltreatment of young children. American Journal of Public Health 99, 175–183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, RJ, Lloyd, DA (2004). Stress burden and the lifetime incidence of psychiatric disorder in young adults: racial and ethnic contrasts. Archives of General Psychiatry 61, 481–488.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, HA, Turner, RJ (2005). Understanding variations in exposure to social stress. Health 9, 209–240.Google Scholar
Turner, RJ, Wheaton, B, Lloyd, DA (1995). The epidemiology of social stress. American Sociological Review 60, 104–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, CY (2002). Evaluating Cutoff Criteria of Model Fit Indices for Latent Variable Models with Binary and Continuous Outcomes. Doctoral dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Weissman, MM, Wickramaratne, P, Nomura, Y, Warner, V, Pilowsky, D, Verdeli, H (2006). Offspring of depressed parents: 20 years later. American Journal of Psychiatry 163, 1001–1008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed