The association of different parenting styles among depressed parents and their offspring’s depression and anxiety: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Parenting styles play a critical role in children’s development, especially for those in families with a depressed parent. To date, no study has explored whether youth perceptions of parenting style are heterogeneous in families with a depressed parent or whether heterogeneous parenting styles are associated with children’s internalizing symptoms. Methods Participants were children aged 8–16 years who had a parent with major depressive disorder; they were enrolled through their parents, who were outpatients at two hospitals in Ningxia. Parenting styles were measured using the Parental Bonding Instrument. Youth depression and anxiety were measured using the Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children and the Screen for Child Anxiety-Related Emotional Disorders, respectively. We applied latent profile analysis to identify the subtypes of parenting styles with similar patterns. Differences between subtypes in relation to demographic variables and parenting style scores were calculated using one-way ANOVAs, Wilcoxon rank sum tests, and chi-squared tests. Bivariate logistic analyses were conducted to examine the associations between parental bonding subtypes and children’s depression and anxiety. Results Four parenting styles were identified through latent profile analysis: care-autonomy, overprotection-indifference, indifference, and undifferentiated parenting. Youth with care-autonomy parents had a lower risk of depression (OR: 0.16; 95% CI: 0.06–0.41) and anxiety (OR: 0.22; 95% CI: 0.10–0.48), while indifference parenting increased children’s risk of depression (OR: 5.29; 95% CI: 1.30–21.54) more than undifferentiated parenting. Conclusions Children with a depressed parent had heterogeneous perceptions of parenting styles. Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting styles were largely congruent. Care-autonomy parenting (high care and high autonomy) may decrease children’s risk of depression, whereas indifference parenting (low care and autonomy) may increase their risk of depression.

The Father’s Part: Influences of Paternal Psychopathology and Parenting Behavior on Child and Adolescent Well-Being

“…Parental psychopathology and parenting behavior are bidirectional variables that influence each other. Dysfunctional parent-child-interaction, associated with parental psychopathology and parenting style, may result in regulatory disorders during infancy [65], in emotional problems during childhood [66], and in adolescent anxiety symptoms [67] or chronic pain disorders [68]. Further, intergenerational transmission effects of parenting styles are described, indicating the offspring's takeover of parental characteristics and thereby influencing further generation's (e.g., grandchildren's) QoL [69].…”

Associations of Parenting Style and Resilience With Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Chinese Middle School Students

“…This study revealed that, compared with the "moderate parenting" profile, the "positive parenting" and the "negative parenting" profiles were both related to depression/anxiety symptoms among adolescents, while positive parenting was a protective factor for depression/anxiety. Wang et al (2021) identified four parenting styles through LPA as: the "careautonomy" profile, "overprotection indifference" profile, "indifference" profile, and "undifferentiated parenting" profile. These results suggested that the risk of depression/anxiety symptoms among adolescents was lower in the "careautonomy" profile, while the risk of depression was higher in the "indifference parenting" profile than in the "undifferentiated parenting" profile.…”

The Relationship Between Parenting Styles and Youth Anxiety, Depression and Academic Performance

“…From the literature analysed above, the first thing that can be ascertained is that the majority of the literature gave supportive evidence of the relationship between how parents raise their children and children's depression, anxiety and academic achievement [2,3,10,11] with only a few suggesting that there is no observable association between different styles and children's depression, anxiety [13]. In terms of the specific effects of parenting styles on children's depression, anxiety and academic performance, most of studies agreed that there would be a negative influence on both children's psychological and behavioural development if parents apply a harsh parenting style.…”

“…The study conducted by Wang et al in 2021 indicated four parenting. Among four different parenting styles, children of care-autonomous parents had a decreased risk of depression, while children of indifferent and undifferentiated parents had a higher risk of depression by analysing the sample [11]. In addition, cross-sectional method used in the study provides another perspective.…”