Testing the temporal relationship between maternal and adolescent depressive and anxiety symptoms in a community sample.

Transactional models have been used to explain the relationship between maternal depression and child behavioral problems; however, few studies have examined transactional models for maternal depression and adolescent depression and anxiety. Using an autoregressive cross-lagged analysis, we examined the longitudinal association between maternal and adolescent depression to determine the extent to which maternal depression influences adolescent depression and anxiety, and vice versa, over the course of a 4-year period. Participants were a community sample of 277 mother-adolescent dyads with offspring 10 to 14 years of age at the 1st year used in the analyses (43.7% female; 35% African American, 2.9% Hispanic/Latino). Depressive symptoms were assessed using maternal self-report (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale; Radloff, 1977), and adolescent depression and anxiety were assessed by self-report (Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale; Chorpita, Yim, Moffitt, Umemoto, & Francis, 2000). The final model, χ(2)(14) = 23.74, p = .05 (TLI = .97, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .05), indicated that maternal depression was significantly associated with adolescent depression 2 years later. Of interest, adolescent depression did not significantly predict maternal depression, and the association between maternal and adolescent depression was not moderated by gender, age, or ethnicity. The association between maternal depression and adolescent anxiety was weaker than that observed for adolescent depression. Results suggest that the transaction model of maternal depression may not extend to adolescent depression and anxiety. Furthermore, maternal depression can have an enduring effect on adolescent depression, and continued research and clinical monitoring over extended periods is warranted.