Bidirectional effects between maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing problems across six years in Northern Ireland

Abstract

Background: Emerging evidence indicates the existence of bidirectional relations between mothers' mental health and adolescent adjustment, but few studies have examined these relations in contexts of high environmental adversity, including economic deprivation and political violence. Given other empirical connections between political violence and adolescent adjustment problems, the impact of child adjustment problems on maternal mental health may be exacerbated in contexts of sectarian violence.Methods: Addressing this gap, latent change score modeling was used to examine interrelations between trajectories of maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing symptoms over time in communities afflicted by political conflict. Over six years, 999 adolescent-mother dyads participated in a longitudinal study in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Six-hundred ninety-five families were originally recruited in year 1, with 304 recruited to supplement the sample in year 3; the largest available sample for a given year was 760 dyads. Models including maternal mental health, adolescent internalizing symptomatology, and political violence (i.e., sectarian antisocial behavior) as a time-varying covariate were tested.Results: Results demonstrated that for both mothers and adolescents in a dyadic pairing, higher rates of symptomology in one member of the dyad were related to symptoms observed in the other member. Results also suggest that political violence and factors related to social deprivation increased symptoms across the dyad. Conclusion:This study advances understanding of the bidirectional impact between

Changes in UK parental mental health symptoms over 10 months of the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…This may reflect the demands of both caretaking and supporting home schooling. Also of note, this mirrored the pattern of mental health symptoms seen in the children of the same sample (Creswell et al, 2021) in line with previous evidence suggesting a bidirectional relationship between parental and child mental health (Luningham et al, 2022). Unlike Pierce et al (2020) who found particularly elevated psychological distress symptoms among parents of preschool children in the first UK national lockdown, we found that having pre-school-aged children (< 4 years) only was associated with decreasing anxiety scores.…”

“…This may reflect the demands of both caretaking and supporting home schooling. Also of note, this mirrored the pattern of mental health symptoms seen in the children of the same sample (Creswell et al, 2021) in line with previous evidence suggesting a bidirectional relationship between parental and child mental health (Luningham et al, 2022). Unlike including disruptions to sleep, mood and quality of relationships (Illingworth et al, 2022) as well as ongoing concerns about disruption, delays and uncertainty in education and recreational activities at a key point in the young person's life that may have a significant bearing on their future (Pearcey et al, 2022).…”

“…Indeed, Pierce et al (2020) showed psychological distress in the first UK national lockdown particularly increased for those living with any younger (0-5 years-old) rather than just older (6-15 years-old) children. The impact of the pandemic on children's mental health may also have affected parental mental health (Luningham et al, 2022), and this may have also varied with child age.…”

Changes in UK Parental Mental Health Symptoms over 10 months of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This may reflect the demands of both caretaking and supporting home schooling. Also of note, this mirrored the pattern of mental health symptoms seen in the children of the same sample (Creswell et al, 2021) in line with previous evidence suggesting a bidirectional relationship between parental and child mental health (Luningham et al, 2022). Unlike Pierce et al (2020) who found particularly elevated psychological distress symptoms among parents of preschool children in the first UK national lockdown, we found that having pre-school-aged children (< 4 years) only was associated with decreasing anxiety scores.…”

“…Indeed, Pierce et al (2020) showed psychological distress in the first UK national lockdown particularly increased for those living with any younger (0-5-years-old) rather than just older (6-15-years-old) children. The impact of the pandemic on children's mental health may also have affected parental mental health (Luningham et al, 2022), and this may have also varied with child age. For example, parents in the UK Co-SPACE study reported greater increases in mental health symptoms among primary school aged children, compared to secondary aged children, in the first UK national lockdown (Waite et al, 2021).…”