Background
Aim of the study
-
H1. The experience of parental separation predicts adult depression.
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H2. The association between the experience of parental separation in childhood and depression in adulthood is more prominent among individuals who had suffered from adolescent depression than among individuals without adolescent depression.
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H3. The association between the experience of parental separation and adult depression is (at least partly) accounted for by major conflicts between parents, major conflicts with parents, economic strain, family moves, and parental depression.
Methods
Study population and procedure
Variables
Statistical method
Results
Descriptives
Non-depressed controls (n = 155) | Depressed (n = 227) |
χ
2 and p-value | |
---|---|---|---|
Baseline
| |||
Sex | |||
Male | 20.6 (32) | 20.7 (47) | |
Female | 79.4 (123) | 79.3 (180) | 0.00 |
Parental separation | 27.1 (42) | 41.4 (94) | 8.23** |
Major conflicts between parents | 9.7 (15) | 29.5 (67) | 21.50*** |
Major conflicts with parents | 5.2 (8) | 27.3 (62) | 30.20*** |
Family income considerably reduced | 9.7 (15) | 21.6 (49) | 9.37** |
Family moved to another city | 29.0 (45) | 35.2 (80) | 1.61 |
Parental depressiona, b
| 25.8 (40) | 37.5 (84) | 5.69* |
Follow-up
| |||
Major depression in adulthood | 31.0 (48) | 59.5 (135) | 29.99*** |
Non-depressed controls (n = 155) | Depressed (n = 227) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Parents not separated | Parents separated |
χ
2 and p-value | Parents not separated | Parents separated |
χ
2 and p-value | |
Baseline
| ||||||
Major conflicts between parents | 3.5 | 26.2 | 17.97*** | 18.8 | 44.7 | 17.74*** |
Major conflicts with parents | 4.4 | 7.1 | 0.46 | 21.8 | 35.1 | 4.91* |
Family income considerably reduced | 6.2 | 19.1 | 5.79* | 15.8 | 29.8 | 6.38* |
Family moved to another city | 25.7 | 38.1 | 2.30 | 30.1 | 42.6 | 3.76 |
Parental depressiona, b
| 22.1 | 35.7 | 2.95 | 33.3 | 43.5 | 2.38 |
Follow-up
| ||||||
Major depression in adulthood | 31.9 | 28.6 | 0.15 | 53.4 | 68.1 | 4.94* |
Parental separation and depression at baseline
coef. | s.e. |
p
| OR | 95% CI | Pseudo R2
| |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Model 1 | Parental separation | 0.64 | 0.23 |
0.004**
|
1.90
|
1.22–2.96
| 0.02 | |
Model 2 | Parental separation | 0.36 | 0.24 | 0.128 | 1.44 | 0.90–2.30 | 0.05 | |
Major conflicts between parents | 1.24 | 0.32 |
<
|
0.001***
|
3.45
|
1.85–6.44
| ||
Model 3 | Parental separation | 0.50 | 0.24 |
0.034*
|
1.65
|
1.04–2.61
| 0.08 | |
Major conflicts with parents | 1.86 | 0.39 |
<
|
0.001***
|
6.41
|
2.96–13.88
| ||
Model 4 | Parental separation | 0.54 | 0.23 |
0.019*
|
1.72
|
1.09–2.69
| 0.03 | |
Family income reduced | 0.83 | 0.32 |
0.010*
|
2.29
|
1.22–4.29
| |||
Model 5 | Parental separation | 0.62 | 0.23 |
0.007**
|
1.85
|
1.19–2.89
| 0.02 | |
Family moved to another city | 0.21 | 0.23 | 0.365 | 1.23 | 0.79–1.93 | |||
Model 6a
| Parental separation | 0.57 | 0.23 |
0.012*
|
1.78
|
1.14–2.78
| 0.02 | |
Parental depression | 0.48 | 0.23 |
0.039*
|
1.62
|
1.02–2.56
| |||
Model 7a
| Parental separation | 0.20 | 0.25 | 0.428 | 1.22 | 0.74–2.02 | 0.10 | |
Major conflicts between parents | 0.76 | 0.35 |
0.030*
|
2.13
|
1.08–4.24
| |||
Major conflicts with parents | 1.54 | 0.41 |
<
|
0.001***
|
4.64
|
2.08–10.36
| ||
Family income reduced | 0.56 | 0.34 | 0.102 | 1.75 | 0.89–3.44 | |||
Family moved to another city | 0.05 | 0.25 | 0.831 | 1.05 | 0.65–1.71 | |||
Parental depression | 0.32 | 0.25 | 0.191 | 1.38 | 0.85–2.25 |
Parental separation and depression at follow-up
coef. | s.e. |
p
| OR | 95% CI | Pseudo R2
| ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Non-depressed controls (n = 155) | |||||||
Model 1 | Parental separation | −0.24 | 0.40 | 0.544 | 0.78 | 0.36–1.73 | 0.01 |
Model 2 | Parental separation | −0.19 | 0.42 | 0.659 | 0.83 | 0.36–1.90 | 0.01 |
Major conflicts between parents | −0.27 | 0.65 | 0.679 | 0.76 | 0.21–2.73 | ||
Model 3 | Parental separation | −0.24 | 0.40 | 0.558 | 0.79 | 0.36–1.74 | 0.01 |
Major conflicts with parents | −0.34 | 0.84 | 0.688 | 0.71 | 0.14–3.70 | ||
Model 4 | Parental separation | −0.23 | 0.41 | 0.582 | 0.80 | 0.35–1.79 | 0.01 |
Family income reduced | −0.12 | 0.63 | 0.845 | 0.88 | 0.26–3.04 | ||
Model 5 | Parental separation | −0.27 | 0.41 | 0.501 | 0.76 | 0.34–1.69 | 0.01 |
Family moved to another city | 0.20 | 0.39 | 0.596 | 1.23 | 0.58–2.61 | ||
Model 6a
| Parental separation | −0.24 | 0.41 | 0.551 | 0.78 | 0.35–1.74 | 0.01 |
Parental depression | −0.02 | 0.41 | 0.968 | 0.98 | 0.44–2.18 | ||
Model 7a
| Parental separation | −0.19 | 0.44 | 0.664 | 0.83 | 0.35–1.95 | 0.02 |
Major conflicts between parents | −0.35 | 0.70 | 0.616 | 0.70 | 0.18–2.80 | ||
Major conflicts with parents | −0.42 | 0.87 | 0.625 | 0.65 | 0.12–3.58 | ||
Family income reduced | −0.02 | 0.66 | 0.977 | 0.98 | 0.27–3.61 | ||
Family moved to another city | 0.31 | 0.41 | 0.453 | 1.36 | 0.61–3.04 | ||
Parental depression | −0.09 | 0.42 | 0.832 | 0.91 | 0.40–2.09 | ||
Depressed (n = 227) | |||||||
Model 1 | Parental separation | 0.69 | 0.29 |
0.016*
|
1.99
|
1.13–3.49
| 0.03 |
Model 2 | Parental separation | 0.64 | 0.30 |
0.032*
|
1.89
|
1.05–3.38
| 0.03 |
Major conflicts between parents | 0.21 | 0.32 | 0.513 | 1.23 | 0.66–2.30 | ||
Model 3 | Parental separation | 0.61 | 0.29 |
0.035*
|
1.85
|
1.05–3.27
| 0.04 |
Major conflicts with parents | 0.64 | 0.33 | 0.052 | 1.89 | 0.99–3.60 | ||
Model 4 | Parental separation | 0.65 | 0.29 |
0.026*
|
1.91
|
1.08–3.37
| 0.03 |
Family income reduced | 0.35 | 0.35 | 0.315 | 1.42 | 0.71–2.84 | ||
Model 5 | Parental separation | 0.62 | 0.29 |
0.032*
|
1.86
|
1.05–3.29
| 0.04 |
Family moved to another city | 0.67 | 0.30 |
0.026*
|
1.96
|
1.08–3.54
| ||
Model 6a
| Parental separation | 0.69 | 0.30 |
0.020*
|
2.00
|
1.12–3.57
| 0.05 |
Parental depression | 0.67 | 0.30 |
0.026*
|
1.95
|
1.08–3.53
| ||
Model 7a
| Parental separation | 0.55 | 0.32 | 0.081 | 1.74 | 0.93–3.23 | 0.08 |
Major conflicts between parents | −0.20 | 0.37 | 0.594 | 0.82 | 0.40–1.70 | ||
Major conflicts with parents | 0.72 | 0.38 | 0.057 | 2.06 | 0.98–4.34 | ||
Family income reduced | 0.09 | 0.37 | 0.800 | 1.10 | 0.53–2.28 | ||
Family moved to another city | 0.75 | 0.32 |
0.019*
|
2.12
|
1.13–3.97
| ||
Parental depression | 0.60 | 0.31 | 0.055 | 1.82 | 0.99–3.35 |
Parental separation and other mental disorders at follow-up
coef. | s.e. |
p
| OR | 95% CI | Pseudo R2
| |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Non-depressed controls (n = 155) | ||||||
Bipolar disorder | 0.45 | 1.27 | 0.725 | 1.57 | 0.13–19.00 | 0.01 |
Anxiety disorder | 0.23 | 0.43 | 0.590 | 1.26 | 0.54–2.91 | 0.02 |
Somatoform disorder | 2.33 | 1.22 | 0.055 | 10.30 | 0.95–111.58 | 0.12 |
Alcohol abuse | −0.30 | 0.83 | 0.713 | 0.74 | 0.15–3.72 | 0.05 |
Drug abusea
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
Psychotic episodesb
| 1.00 | 1.43 | 0.481 | 2.73 | 0.17–44.69 | 0.02 |
Depressed (n = 227) | ||||||
Bipolar disorder | 0.86 | 0.44 |
0.048*
|
2.37
|
1.01–5.55
| 0.03 |
Anxiety disorder | 0.01 | 0.27 | 0.964 | 1.01 | 0.59–1.73 | 0.01 |
Somatoform disorder | 0.67 | 0.42 | 0.108 | 1.95 | 0.86–4.41 | 0.02 |
Alcohol abuse | −0.08 | 0.40 | 0.836 | 0.92 | 0.42–2.02 | 0.00 |
Drug abuse | −0.13 | 0.52 | 0.811 | 0.88 | 0.32–2.45 | 0.03 |
Psychotic episodesb
| −0.36 | 0.72 | 0.617 | 0.70 | 0.17–2.86 | 0.00 |