title: Life stress and first onset of psychiatric disorders in daughters of depressed mothers.
abstract: This study used a comprehensive, interview-based measure of life stress to assess the role of different types of stress in predicting first onset of psychiatric disorders among daughters of depressed (n = 22) mothers and healthy (n = 22) mothers. Several types of stress were assessed: Chronic interpersonal stress, chronic non-interpersonal stress, episodic dependent (i.e., self-generated) interpersonal stress, episodic dependent non-interpersonal stress, episodic independent interpersonal stress, and episodic independent non-interpersonal stress. Daughters (ages 9-14) were recruited to have no clinically significant symptoms upon entry (T1). By a 30-month follow-up assessment (T2), 45% of the daughters of depressed mothers, but none of the daughters of healthy mothers, had developed a psychiatric disorder. Overall, daughters of depressed mothers were exposed to more severe chronic interpersonal and non-interpersonal stress than were daughters of healthy mothers. Further, daughters of depressed mothers who developed a psychiatric disorder by T2 were exposed to more severe chronic non-interpersonal stress and episodic dependent stress than were daughters of depressed mothers who remained healthy. We discuss the implications of these findings in the context of a stress-generation model for the intergenerational transmission of psychiatric risk among children of depressed mothers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States. gershon@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Anda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gershon
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hayward
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schraedley-Desmond
authors.forename: Karen D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Rudolph
authors.forename: Genery D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Booster
authors.forename: Ian H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Gotlib
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012307:Risk Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology