The Effects of Parents Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms on Parent Report of Adolescents Anxiety Symptoms

Abstract

The current report examined if symptoms of anxiety and/or depression in parents could affect how the parents reported their adolescents anxiety symptoms, and if parental symptoms of depression and/or anxiety could affect the degree of agreement between parents and adolescents. The sample comprised 456 adolescents, 369 fathers and 481 mothers from the sixth round of collecting data in the Tracing Opportunities and Problem in Childhood and Adolescence (TOPP) study. The data used in this report are drawn from the TOPP-study, carried out by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Symptoms of anxiety and depression in parents and symptoms of anxiety in adolescents were measured with the use of rating scales. Parents self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms, adolescents self-reported anxiety symptoms, and parents rated anxiety symptoms in their adolescents. Descriptive analysis, correlational analysis and regression analysis was conducted to examine the variables in the study. Symptoms of depression, not anxiety, in both mothers and fathers affected how they reported symptoms of anxiety in adolescents. The more depression symptoms parents self-reported, the more symptoms of anxiety they reported in their adolescents. Symptoms of depression, not anxiety, showed to affect the degree of agreement between informants. Depression symptoms in parents predicted discrepancy between informants. Results were small, but significant.