Familial relationships perceived by parents and adolescent depression: Psychosocial functioning moderating effect

Abstract

Depression is considered a health problem associated with significant impairment in psychosocial functioning. The quality of interpersonal relationships between parent and adolescents can be an important protective/vulnerability factor to depression. This study aims to understand if the psychosocial functioning of the adolescent is a moderator variable between the quality of interpersonal relationships perceived by the parents and depressive symptoms of the adolescents. Further, we analyse if gender of adolescents influence the quality of these relationships, and if psychosocial functioning and quality of interpersonal relationships is associated with depression. The sample is constituted by 132 adolescents and their parents, participants integrated in a research project about prevention of adolescent depression (PTDC/MHC-PCL/4824/2012). Self-report questionnaires were used to assess depressive symptoms (Children's Depression Inventory -CDI; Kovacs, 1985; Portuguese version: Marújo, 1994) were associated with depressive symptoms. It was found a moderation effect of school performance and satisfaction in the relationship between the support/depth dimension of the relationship parent/children and depressive symptoms. Our findings reinforce the importance of parent/children relationships and psychosocial functioning in the development of adolescent depression and emphasize the importance of the inclusion these variables in the prevention programs of depression.