Genetic and Environmental Influences on Parent–Child Conflict and Child Depression Through Late Adolescence

Abstract

Few studies have investigated potential gender differences in the genetic and environmental influences on the prospective associations between parent–child conflict and later depression, a notable gap given substantial gender differences in rates of depression and suggestive evidence of differences in the etiology of depression among females and males. To fill this gap, we evaluated whether the prospective relationship between parent–child conflict and major depressive disorder symptoms varied as a function of parent–child gender composition. A combined twin and adoption sample was used (53% female; 85% European ancestry), containing 1,627 adolescent sibling pairs (789 monozygotic twin pairs, 594 dizygotic/full-biological pairs, 244 genetically unrelated pairs) with assessments at two time points in adolescence (approximate ages 15 and 18). Prospective associations between parent–child conflict and subsequent adolescent depression were explained predominately through common genetic influences for mother–daughter and mother–son pairs but less so for father–daughter and father–son pairs. Results support the notion that processes of gene–environment correlation involved in the prospective associations between parent–child conflict, and later adolescent depression appear to be less relevant to father–child relationships in comparison to mother–child relationships. Notably, results did not show that parent–child conflict was more relevant to the etiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) for girls than boys; gender differences in depression do not appear to be due to differences in the associations between parent–child conflict and child depression.

FUNDING

This research was supported by Grants DA05147, DA013240, and DA024417 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Grants AA09367 and AA011886 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and Grant MH066140 from the National Institute of Mental Health. Diana R. Samek was also supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project 1006129. Sylia Wilson was also supported by K01 DA 037280 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the aforementioned funding agencies.

Supplemental Material

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Notes

¹ We ran supplementary analyses that excluded the screened ES sample (n = 242 pairs with elevated childhood disruptive disorders) and found the same general pattern of results. To retain maximal power, we included the entire ES sample in the upcoming reported results.

² As outlined in McGue and Bouchard (1984), when main effects of age and sex exist, it is recommended that they are regressed out and analyses are conducted with the residualized scores in order to reduce the overestimation of the twin/sibling correlation. It is important to note that regressing out the main effect of gender on each variable does not account for whether gender differences are found in the covariances between variables. We outline our analytic plan for testing for moderation by gender later in the Analysis Plan section.

³ Bold font emphasizes difference in C and E estimates.

⁴ For reference, standardized coefficients from the full multivariate Cholesky results are also shown in the Supplementary Materials, Figures 2 to 5, for mother–daughter pairs, mother–son pairs, father–daughter pairs, and father–son pairs, respectively.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Grants DA05147, DA013240, and DA024417 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Grants AA09367 and AA011886 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and Grant MH066140 from the National Institute of Mental Health. Diana R. Samek was also supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project 1006129. Sylia Wilson was also supported by K01 DA 037280 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the aforementioned funding agencies.