Paternal Depressive Symptoms and Socioeconomic Disadvantage: The Role of Parenting in Association with Childhood Depression in China

Background/Purpose:China has the second largest population of children in the world. An increasing number of researches show that Chinese children suffer the same or even higher mental health problems when compared to Western children. There are two powerful risk factors for children’s mental health: family-history of psychopathology and socioeconomic disadvantage. Substantial evidence shows that maternal depression has negative effects on children’s behavioral problems, but there is a paucity of literature regarding the effect of paternal depression. Several small studies indicate that there exists a significant association between paternal depression and children’s cognitive and behavioral problems. Children in low-SES families are disproportionately affected by parental depression, suggesting that those children are a particularly vulnerable group to study.

The Spillover Model posits that disrupted parenting is one mechanism through which parental depression is associated with children’s depression. Socioeconomic disadvantage also affects children’s development through family processes, especially disrupted parenting and family conflict. In China, fathers are more responsible for economic burden in family, so paternal parenting may be affected more by socioeconomic disadvantage.

The objective of this study is to examine the associations of paternal depressive symptoms, family economic disadvantage, and Chinese children’s depression, as well as the mediation role of disrupted parenting behaviors, in order to provide policy and clinical implications for the well-being of depressed children living in socioeconomic disadvantage.

Methods:Data and samples:We use data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), 2010 -- 2012. CFPS is a nationally representative, annual longitudinal survey of Chinese communities, families, and individuals launched in 2010. Each year’s sample consists of over 5000 children aged between 0 and 15 years old, and their fathers.

Measures:Paternal and childhood depressive symptoms are assessed using Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Family SES is assessed by parent report of household income and parent education. Paternal parenting behaviors are assessed by parent-report, using questions regarding withdrawn and intrusive behaviors toward children.

Empirical Strategies:Bivariate analyses are conducted to test the association between each variable. For multivariate analyses, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and logistic regression analyses are used to assess the independent effect of paternal depressive symptoms and family socioeconomic disadvantage, as well as the mediation role of paternal disrupted parenting.

Results:The results demonstrate that 1) paternal depressive symptom is independently associated with higher levels of children’s depression; 2) paternal depressive symptoms, family socioeconomic disadvantage, and disrupted parenting are all correlated with higher levels of childhood depression; 3) disrupted parenting is a shared mechanism through which both paternal depression and socioeconomic disadvantage are associated with children’s depression.

Conclusions and Implications:The results from this study provide support that paternal depression and family socioeconomic disadvantage are associated with increased risk for children’s depression in China. In addition, the effects of paternal depression and socioeconomic disadvantage may be driven primarily by the associated disrupted parenting. These findings suggest that fathers should also be involved in the treatment of childhood depression, and disrupted parenting is an important and feasible target for intervention with children and families dealing with depression and economic disadvantage in China.