Week 3: Parental Monitoring And Family Environment

Hi! Welcome back to my blog!

This week, I delved into research papers that explore the relationship between parental monitoring and depressive disorders in adolescents. Pelham et al. (2022) examined the association between parental knowledge/monitoring and depressive symptoms during adolescence. Although the results showed that higher parental knowledge/monitoring levels were initially linked to lower levels of depressive symptoms, this association became insignificant when controlling for other variables. This suggests that the relationship between parental monitoring and depressive symptoms in adolescents may not be straightforward.

Schwendemann et al. (2018b) explored the relationship between perceived familial protective factors and depressive symptoms in vulnerable youth. Their findings showed that family support, communication, and monitoring were significant protective factors, while family conflict was an important risk factor for depressive symptoms. This highlights the importance of positive familial relationships in reducing depressive symptoms in vulnerable youth.

Lastly, Donado et al. (2020) investigated the longitudinal association between exposure to parental depressive symptoms and adolescents’ depressive symptoms and adjustment problems. Their study found that exposure to parental depressive symptoms predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms and adjustment problems in adolescents, emphasizing the need for early intervention and prevention efforts for children of parents with depressive symptoms.

In conclusion, this week’s research yielded great fruit! I learned a lot through these research papers and gained valuable insights into the complex relationship between parental monitoring and depressive symptoms in adolescents. The findings suggest that while parental monitoring may not be a direct protective factor against adolescent depression, positive familial relationships, and early intervention efforts can have a significant impact on reducing depressive symptoms and promoting positive mental health outcomes in vulnerable youth. Next week I will be focusing more on what impact depression has on brain structures.

References:

Donado, C., Friedrich, Y., Kossowsky, J., Locher, C., & Koechlin, H. (2020). Exposure to Parental Depressive Symptoms: A Longitudinal Analysis on the Association with Adolescents’ Depressive Symptoms and Adjustment Problems. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 41(7), 522–533. https://doi.org/10.1097/dbp.0000000000000820

Pelham, W. E., Tapert, S. F., Gonzalez, M. R., Guillaume, M., Dick, A., Sheth, C., Baker, F. C., Baskin-Sommers, A. R., Marshall, A., Lisdahl, K. M., Breslin, F. J., Van Rinsveld, A., & Brown, S. A. (2022). Parental Knowledge/Monitoring and Depressive Symptoms During Adolescence: Protective Factor or Spurious Association? Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-021-00896-9

Schwendemann, H., Kuttler, H., Mößle, T., & Bitzer, E. M. (2018). Cross-sectional relationship of perceived familial protective factors with depressive symptoms in vulnerable youth. BMC Psychiatry, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1618-x