title: The relationship between parental depressive symptoms and offspring psychopathology: evidence from a children-of-twins study and an adoption study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Parental depressive symptoms are associated with emotional and behavioural problems in offspring. However, genetically informative studies are needed to distinguish potential causal effects from genetic confounds, and longitudinal studies are required to distinguish parent-to-child effects from child-to-parent effects.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted cross-sectional analyses on a sample of Swedish twins and their adolescent offspring (n = 876 twin families), and longitudinal analyses on a US sample of children adopted at birth, their adoptive parents, and their birth mothers (n = 361 adoptive families). Depressive symptoms were measured in parents, and externalizing and internalizing problems measured in offspring. Structural equation models were fitted to the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results of model fitting suggest that associations between parental depressive symptoms and offspring internalizing and externalizing problems remain after accounting for genes shared between parent and child. Genetic transmission was not evident in the twin study but was evident in the adoption study. In the longitudinal adoption study child-to-parent effects were evident.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We interpret the results as demonstrating that associations between parental depressive symptoms and offspring emotional and behavioural problems are not solely attributable to shared genes, and that bidirectional effects may be present in intergenerational associations.
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre,Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,King's College London,London,UK.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: McAdams
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre,Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,King's College London,London,UK.
authors.forename: F V
authors.initials: FV
authors.lastname: Rijsdijk
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology,Penn State University,USA.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Neiderhiser
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neusroscience,Karolinska Institutet,Stockholm,Sweden.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Narusyte
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology,University of Pittsburgh,USA.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology,University of California Riverside,USA.
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Natsuaki
authors.affiliation: Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research,NIH,Bethesda,MD,USA.
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Spotts
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology,George Washington University,Washington,DC,USA.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ganiban
authors.affiliation: Child Study Center,Yale University,New Haven,CT,USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reiss
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling Psychology and Human Services,University of Oregon, and Oregon Social Learning Center,Eugene,Oregon,USA.
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Leve
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics,Karolinksa Institute,Stockholm,Sweden.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lichtenstein
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre,Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience,King's College London,London,UK.
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Eley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000300:Adoption; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011599:Psychopathology; D057566:Self Report; D013548:Sweden; D014427:Twins / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adoption; children of twins; externalizing; gene–environment correlation; internalizing; parental depression