The relationship between maternal depression, adolescent depression, and engagement in health-risk behaviours

• Author / Creator

  Wickham, Maeve E.

• Maternal depression is a known risk factor for offspring psychopathology; however, the role of maternal depressive symptoms in the adolescent engagement in health-risk behaviours (e.g., substance use and delinquency) needs further study. Using data from 2910 youth in the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), a nationally representative prospective cohort, the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and engagement in a variety of health-risk behaviours at age 16-17, as well as time of onset of engagement, was examined. Latent class analysis was used to model trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms from age 4-15, and exploratory factor analysis was used to examine clusters of health-risk behaviours; five trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms during childhood were modeled, and five factors of behaviours were found. Findings indicate that adolescents exposed to high maternal depressive symptoms in mid-childhood engaged in more health-risk behaviours, earlier, than adolescents not exposed to maternal depressive symptoms.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Health-risk behaviour
  • Adolescent depression
  • Maternal depression

• Graduation date

  Fall 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3PP9C

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.