Associations between perceived parenting, brain activity and connectivity, and depression symptoms in Brazilian adolescents

ABSTRACT

In adolescence, parental care is associated with lower depression symptoms whereas parental overprotection is associated with greater depression symptoms, effects which may be mediated by adolescent brain activity and connectivity. The present study examined associations between perceived parenting, brain activity and connectivity, and depression symptoms in adolescents from Brazil, a middle-income country (MIC). Analyses included 100 adolescents who underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning while completing a face matching task. Parental care and overprotection were associated with adolescent depression symptoms in expected directions. We also found that parental care and overprotection were associated with amygdala connectivity with several brain regions; however, amygdala activity was not associated with parenting and neither activity or connectivity mediated the association between parenting and depression symptoms. Results identify how parenting influences brain function and depression symptoms in youth from a MIC.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescence
• parenting
• depression
• amygdala
• functional MRI (fMRI)

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the schools and individuals who participated in this study, and to all members of the IDEA team for their dedication, hard work, and insights. A.C. also thanks Christine Westall for her generous donation in support of graduate students in the UC Davis Human Development Graduate Group.

Disclosure statement

V.M. has received in the past research funding from Johnson & Johnson as part of a research program on depression and inflammation, but the research described in this paper is unrelated to this funding. The remaining authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.

Author contribution statement

All authors agree to the authorship order and content of the manuscript.

Human subjects ethical statement

Authors certify compliance with APA ethical standards. This study was approved by the Brazilian National Ethics in Research Commission (CAAE 50,473,015.90000.5327). Written informed consent/assent was obtained from adolescents and their caregivers.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2024.2354910

Additional information

Funding

A.C. was supported by the Westall Fellowship from UC Davis. The IDEA (Identifying Depression Early in Adolescence) project of which this research belongs to is funded by an MQ Brighter Futures grant (MQBF/1 IDEA). Additional support was provided by the Medical Research Council (MC_PC_MR/R019460/1) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (GCRFNG\100281) under the Global Challenges Research Fund. This work is also supported by research grants from Brazilian public funding agencies Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq; 477129/2012-9 and 445828/2014-5), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES; 62/2014), and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS; 17/2551-0001009- 4). C.K. is a CNPq researcher and an Academy of Medical Sciences Newton Advanced Fellow. V.M. is supported by the Medical Research Foundation [MRF160-0005-ELPMONDE] and by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Mental Health Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. J.S. and C.K. were also supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) [R21MH124072]. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the NIHR, the NIMH, or the Department of Health and Social Care.