The impact of childhood parental quality on mental health outcomes in older adults

ABSTRACT

Objective: Parental bonding is cited as a determinant of mental health outcomes in childhood, adolescence and early-mid adulthood. Examination of the long-term impact for older adults is limited. We therefore examine the long-term risk of perceived poor parental bonding on mental health across the lifespan and into early-old age.

Methods: Participants (N = 1255) were aged 60–64 years of age and drawn from the Australian Life Histories and Health study. Quality of parental bonding was assessed with the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). Self-reported history of doctors’ mental health diagnoses and current treatment for each participant was recorded. Current depression was assessed with the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression-8 (CESD-8). Due to known gender differences in mental health rates across the lifespan, analyses were stratified by sex.

Results: A bi-factor analysis of the PBI in a structural equation framework indicated perceived Poor Parental Quality as a risk for both ever and current depression for both sexes. For males, Over-Protective Fathers were a risk for ever and current depression, whilst overall Poor Parental Quality was a risk for reporting current depression treatment. Whilst a number of the risks associated with current depression and treatment were attenuated when controlling for current mood, parental quality remained a significant risk for having reported a lifetime diagnosis for depression and anxiety for men.

Conclusion: Our results extend the existing literature base and demonstrate that mental health risk attributed to poor perceived parental quality continues across the life-course and into early-old age.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental quality
• mental health
• depression
• anxiety
• life-histories

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grant (project number DP1096778) and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (project number CE110001029). The views expressed here are those of the authors alone. This research was completed using data collected through the 45 and Up Study (HYPERLINK “http://www.saxinstitute.org.au/” \t “_new” www.saxinstitute.org.au). The 45 and Up Study is managed by the Sax Institute in collaboration with major partner Cancer Council NSW; and partners: the National Heart Foundation of Australia (NSW Division); NSW Ministry of Health; beyondblue; NSW Government Family and Community Services – Carers, Ageing and Disability Inclusion; and the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. We thank the many thousands of people participating in the 45 and Up Study. We also thank Prof. James Nazroo at the University of Manchester, UK, A/Prof. Kate O'Loughlin at the University of Sydney and Prof. Gita Mishra at the University of Queensland for contributing to the study inception and design, Dr. Jack Noone at the University of Sydney for managing the field work, and Ms Peta Forder at the University of Newcastle for managing data amalgamation. All authors have read and approved the final version of this paper. Specifically, Burns formulated the research question, determined the analytical methods, and undertook the statistical analysis, and led the writing of the paper. Byles and Kendig supervised the data collection, and contributed to formulating the research question and writing the paper. Loh contributed to formulating the research question and writing the paper.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project [project number DP1096778]; ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research [grant number CE110001029].