Does parental rearing behavior play a role in the familial transmission of anxiety and affective disorders?

Results from family studies suggest that Major Depression and anxiety disorders run in families. Among the factors discussed to play a role in this familial transmission is parental rearing behavior. It remains unclear, whether rearing behavior is a disorder-specific factor and to what extent it can explain the familial aggregation of disorders in general population samples.

Within the longitudinal EDSP-Study we examined a representative community sample of originally 1395 14-to 17-year-old adolescents and young adults with the M-CIDI at three points of time. In addition, parental rearing behavior was assessed. In an independent parent investigation the mothers of these adolescents were also interviewed. Family-history information is available for the fathers.

We could show that lower paternal emotional warmth is associated with an elevated probability of affective and anxiety disorders in the children. It could also be demonstrated that stronger maternal rejection is associated with an elevated risk for affective disorders. These associations remained almost unchanged when parental psychopathology was additionally considered.

These results suggest that parental rearing behaviour may play an important role in the etiology of anxiety and affective disorders. However, the observed associations cannot be explained by a mechanism that leads from parental diagnoses affecting parental rearing behaviour which in turn has an impact on the psychopathology of the children.