Mothers’ and Fathers’ Ratings of Family Relationship Quality: Associations with Preadolescent and Adolescent Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in a Clinical Sample

Abstract

This study examined the independent associations among three family relationship quality factors--cohesion, expressiveness, and conflict--with youth self-reported depressive and anxiety symptoms in a clinical sample of anxious and depressed youth. Ratings of family relationship quality were obtained through both mother and father report. The sample included families of 147 preadolescents and adolescents (56.6 % female; 89.8 % Caucasian), 11-18 years old (M = 13.64, SD = 1.98) assigned a principal diagnosis of an anxiety or depressive disorder. When controlling for age and concurrent anxiety symptoms, regression analyses revealed that for boys, both father- and mother-rated family cohesion predicted depressive symptoms. For girls, mother-rated family expressiveness and conflict predicted depressive symptoms. Youth anxiety symptoms were not significantly associated with any family relationship variables, controlling for concurrent depressive symptoms. Findings suggest that parent-rated family relationship factors may be more related to youth depressive than anxiety symptoms in this clinical sample. In addition, family cohesion, as perceived by parents, may be more related to boys' depression, whereas expressiveness and conflict (as rated by mothers) may be more related to girls' depression. Clinical implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Adolescent attachment, family functioning and depressive symptoms

“…In our study family dynamics were significantly correlated with depressive symptoms, concurring with findings from Queen et al [31] The family dynamics of cohesion, support and communication appear to coincide with the adolescent-parent attachment dynamic. More of these dynamics within the family is related to a greater degree of attachment.…”

“…Similarly, a longitudinal study conducted by Sze et al [30] showed that close and caring families, reflective of high levels of family cohesion, communication and support, are associated with lower levels of depressive symptomatology in adolescence. Queen et al [31] investigated mothers' and fathers' reports of family cohesion on depressive symptoms reported by adolescents. Their findings indicated a strong correlation between family cohesion and depressive symptoms in their adolescent sample.…”

Promoting Adolescent Behavioral Adjustment in Violent Neighborhoods: Supportive Families Can Make a Difference!

“…For example, family cohesion has found to be predictive of fewer depressive symptoms for adolescent boys (Queen, Stewart, Ehrenreich-May, & Pincus, 2013) and feelings of loneliness for adolescent girls (Johnson, LaVoie, & Mahoney, 2001). These findings have also been confirmed in early adolescents, with low levels of cohesion related to higher internalizing problems (Deng et al, 2006).…”

Do Youth Development Programs Matter? An Examination of Transitions and Well-Being Among Military Youth

“…Similarly, military youth may also be more at-risk for anxiety, especially during military transitional periods, such as deployment or relocation (Huebner and Mancini 2005). Adolescent anxiety often co-occurs with other internalizing and externalizing symptoms, such as depression (Johnson and Greenberg 2013;Queen et al 2013) and emotion dysregulation (Bender et al 2012). Additionally, adolescent anxiety places youth at increased risk for anxiety in adulthood (Duchesne et al 2008).…”