Background: Associations between parent and child anxiety and depressive symptoms are frequently reported and often attributed to environmental processes. However, previous work provides little information on whether the timing of exposure to parent symptoms matters for the emergence of child symptoms. The present study assessed parent anxiety and depressive symptoms across infancy, childhood, and early adolescence, and examined if there were time specific parent effects on early adolescent anxiety and depressive symptoms at age 11 years after controlling for genetic and prenatal influences.
Methods: The sample was from the Early Growth and Development Study, and included 561 adopted children, along with their birth and adoptive parents. Using a trait-state-occasion model, we examined whether trait-like and time-specific levels of adoptive parent anxiety and depressive symptoms (assessed from child ages 9 months to 11 years) were associated with adopted child anxiety and depressive symptoms at 11 years. To isolate the impact of adoptive parent symptoms on early adolescent symptoms, analyses controlled for genetic and prenatal influences measured by birth parent characteristics.
Results: Adoptive mother (AM) trait-like symptoms were not associated with early adolescent symptoms at 11 years. However, there were time-specific effects: AM symptoms at child age 9 months were indirectly associated with early adolescent symptoms at age 11 via children’s symptoms at 4.5 years; AM symptoms at child age 11 years were associated with early adolescents’ concurrent symptoms. Adoptive father anxiety and depressive symptoms were not associated with early adolescent symptoms.
Conclusions: Results suggest that early infancy and early adolescence may be sensitive periods of exposure to maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms. To prevent early adolescent anxiety and depressive symptoms, preventive interventions could screen for within-person changes in maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms during these sensitive periods.