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The Impact of Parental Mental Health Diagnoses, Trauma, and Coping Mechanisms on Their Children’s Well-Being

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Abstract

The transgenerational effects of parental diagnoses, trauma and coping mechanisms on children’s internalizing symptoms are not well understood. In a population-based study of 933 families combining data from a web-based survey and the Danish registers, we used an online survey of parents to examine how parental diagnoses, trauma and coping mechanisms affect the development of internalizing symptoms in children aged 6 to 18 years. To account for attrition, we used inverse probability weights in our regression models. Children of parents diagnosed with depression or anxiety displayed more internalizing symptoms than children of controls. Similarly, children of parents who experienced multiple trauma had significantly more internalizing symptoms. In contrast, we observed significantly fewer internalizing symptoms among children of parents who felt they could cope well. The protective effect of parental coping persisted even after adjusting for parental diagnoses or trauma. Interventions boosting parental coping mechanisms might help to prevent the development of internalizing symptoms in children even among patients who have been diagnosed with depression or anxiety or experienced a high trauma load.

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Data Availability

The data that supports the findings of the current study are not openly available due to reasons of sensitivity and confidentiality.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly funded by the Mental Health Services Capital Region Denmark and the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) Canadian Research Chairs (CRC) stipend [award number 1024586] and Patient-Oriented Research: Early Career Investigator Project Grant [grant number PJM 177968]; Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) [grant number 38835].

Funding

The current study was funded by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (1024586; PJM 177968), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (38835), and Mental Health Services Capital Region Denmark.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology/Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Danika DesRoches

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Manuel Mattheisen, Silvia Marin-Dragu, Matt Orr & Sandra Melanie Meier

  3. Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Lausanne and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Kerstin Jessica Plessen

  4. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Centre, Copenhagen University Hospital - Mental Health Services CPH, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Anne Katrine Pagsberg & Sandra Melanie Meier

  5. Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Anne Katrine Pagsberg

  6. IWK Health Centre Department of Psychiatry & Specific Care Clinics, 5850/5980 University Ave, PO Box 9700, Halifax, NS, B3K 6R8, Canada

    Sandra Melanie Meier

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  1. Danika DesRoches
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Contributions

Danika DesRoches: Data Investigation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft. Manuel Mattheisen: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing- Review & Editing. Kerstin Jessica Plessen: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - Review & Editing. Anne Katrine Pagsberg: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing - Review & Editing. Silvia Marin Dragu: Writing – Review & Editing. Matt Orr: Writing – Review & Editing. Sandra Meier: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding Acquisition, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Visualization, Writing - Review & Editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sandra Melanie Meier.

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Competing Interests

All authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Ethical Approval

Following the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, participants were informed that participation in the survey was voluntary and that consent to participate could be withdrawn at any time. The questionnaire and survey methodology were approved by the Danish Health Data Authority, and approval of the use of data from the Danish registers was granted by Statistics Denmark and the Danish Health Data Authority. The project was registered with the Danish Data Protection Agency (record number 2016-051-000001).

Competing Interests

The authors have no competing interests or interests that might be perceived to influence the results and/or discussion reported.

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DesRoches, D., Mattheisen, M., Plessen, K.J. et al. The Impact of Parental Mental Health Diagnoses, Trauma, and Coping Mechanisms on Their Children’s Well-Being. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01626-6

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