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Reported parental behaviour and adult affective symptoms. 2. Mediating factors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Bryan Rodgers
Bryan Rodgers*
Affiliation:
NH&MRC Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; MRC National Survey of Health and Development, University College London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr Bryan Rodgers, NH&MRC Social Psychiatry Research Unit, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
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Synopsis

Potential mediators of the modest association between retrospectively rated parental behaviour and adult affective symptoms in offspring were investigated in a national longitudinal study of a cohort followed to the age of 43. Personality measures from adolescence could account for a small part of this association. Personal relationships in adulthood were more strongly associated with both parental behaviour and symptoms: marital history, emotional support, social network and availability of help in a crisis. Poor parenting did not lead to a general vulnerability to later life events, and socio-economic status and financial hardship were not implicated in the link between parental behaviour and adult symptoms. However, parental affectionless control was associated with certain types of life stressors in adulthood, i.e. interpersonal as opposed to non-interpersonal life events. Collectively, aspects of personal relationships accounted for much of the elevated symptom levels in those rating parents as low on care or high on control. Findings were consistent with the notion that interpersonal competence is important in the continuity between childhood experience and adult mental health, but other possible interpretations are discussed.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 63 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

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