Can Mother–Daughter Communication Buffer Adolescent Risk for Mental Health Problems Associated With Maternal Depressive Symptoms?

Abstract

The current study sought to test whether higher quality mother-daughter communication would buffer associations between maternal depressive symptoms and girls' internalizing and externalizing psychopathology symptoms among urban African American girls across a 12-month period. One hundred ninety-four treatment-seeking urban African American adolescent girls, ages 12-16, and their mothers participated in the study. Every 6 months (for up to 3 assessments), daughters reported on their internalizing and externalizing symptoms, mothers reported on their depressive symptoms, and both mothers and daughters reported on the quality of their dyadic communication. Daughters additionally reported on the extent to which they felt accepted by their mothers at each assessment. Results of multilevel modeling revealed that quality of communication significantly interacted with maternal depressive symptoms to predict externalizing and internalizing symptoms in daughters, such that the risk associated with maternal depressive symptoms was fully buffered for daughters in high-quality communication dyads. Secondary analyses demonstrated that these patterns of results were not accounted for by higher levels of social status or maternal acceptance. Drawing on a vulnerable and understudied population of urban African American adolescent girls, this work suggests that family communication may contribute to important intergenerational psychopathology transmission processes, above and beyond more general features of the family environment.

Feeling unloved is the most robust sign of adolescent depression linking to family communication patterns

“…While Conversation orientation featured by open, comfortable, and non-judgmental communication showed a protective effect on youth depression, Conformity orientation mirroring authoritarian parenting was associated with more severe depressive symptoms. This is consistent with previous research linking autonomy granting (Yap et al, 2014) and high-quality communication (Ioffe et al, 2020;Manczak et al, 2018) to reduced mental health problems in young people. A family environment that encourages open communication and tolerates different opinions could meet the increasing desire for autonomy when children are transitioning into adolescence (Qin et al, 2009).…”

“…This is consistent with previous research linking autonomy granting (Yap et al, 2014) and high‐quality communication (Ioffe et al, 2020; Manczak et al, 2018) to reduced mental health problems in young people. A family environment that encourages open communication and tolerates different opinions could meet the increasing desire for autonomy when children are transitioning into adolescence (Qin et al, 2009).…”

“…Feeling unloved is the most robust sign of adolescent depression linking to family communication patterns and externalizing problems (Manczak et al, 2018), whereas maladaptive communication such as co-rumination focusing on problems and negative feelings may deteriorate adolescents' anxiety and depressive symptoms (Ioffe et al, 2020).…”

“…Specifically, family communication patterns, through which family members create a shared social reality (Koerner & Fitzpatrick, 2006), contribute significantly to healthy family functioning and the development of internalizing symptoms among adolescents (Hughes & Gullone, 2008). Parent–child open communication can exert a protective effect on adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems (Manczak et al, 2018), whereas maladaptive communication such as co‐rumination focusing on problems and negative feelings may deteriorate adolescents' anxiety and depressive symptoms (Ioffe et al, 2020).…”

Water contaminant levels interact with parenting environment to predict development of depressive symptoms in adolescents

“…Here, psychological control, which reflects parents’ erratic emotional behaviors, guilt induction, love‐withdrawal, or personal attacks directed toward their child, may be a particularly aversive parenting dimension during the adolescent period, given that this developmental stage is typically characterized by increasing autonomy (Barber, ). In these ways, psychological control and other dimensions of relationships with parents have been found both to contribute directly to (Yap, Pilkinton, Ryan, & Jorm, ) and to moderate depressive symptoms, either by intensifying (Feinberg, Button, Neiderhiser, Reiss, & Hetherington, ) or by buffering (Manczak, Donenberg, & Emerson, ) other risk processes. Furthermore, social environments are increasingly being recognized as moderating the effects of exposure to different environments on physical health outcomes in youth.…”