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Parental marital status and anxiety symptoms in adolescents: the mediating effect of childhood maltreatment

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Abstract

Although previous studies have established the association between parental marital status and mental health problems in adolescents, however, the adverse effects of incomplete family settings and childhood maltreatment on adolescent anxiety symptoms have not been fully investigated. Moreover, whether childhood maltreatment can mediate the relationship between parental marital status and anxiety symptoms remains unclear. A population-based cross-sectional study was performed among 35,573 adolescents in elementary schools across 17 provinces in China. And childhood maltreatment, resilience, and anxiety symptoms were assessed among adolescents, respectively. The parental marital status was self-reported as having two married biological parents, divorced parents, stepparents, and single-parent. We found that the rates of anxiety symptoms among adolescents were 35.1% in intact families, 48.8% in divorced families, 49% in stepparent families, and 48% in single-parent families. Divorced parents (aOR = 1.191, 95% CI [1.060–1.337]) was an independent risk factor for adolescents’ anxiety symptom while having stepparents and single-parent were not. In addition, emotional abuse (aOR = 1.300, 95% CI [1.285–1.316]), sexual abuse (aOR = 1.088, 95% CI [1.063–1.114]), and physical neglect (aOR = 1.019, 95% CI [1.007–1.031]) were all independent risk factors for anxiety symptoms in adolescents, while physical abuse and emotional neglect were not. The negative impacts of divorced and remarried parents on adolescent anxiety symptoms were mediated by childhood maltreatment partially (64.9% and 72.2%), while childhood maltreatment completely mediated the adverse impacts of single-parent on adolescent anxiety symptoms. Childhood maltreatment intervention strategies could be necessary for anxiety symptoms of adolescents in divorced/stepparent/single-parent families.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants in the study and their families.

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Author notes

  1. Lulu Wen and Kun Yang have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neurology Department, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Xicheng District, Beijing, 100053, China

    Lulu Wen & Miao Qu

  2. Evidence-Based Department, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

    Kun Yang

  3. Neurology Department, Third Affiliated Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

    Yujia Cao

  4. Peking University Huilongguan Clinical Medical School, Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, Changping District, Beijing, 100096, China

    Meihong Xiu

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  1. Lulu Wen
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  4. Miao Qu
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Contributions

LW, KY, MQ, and MX were responsible for study design, statistical analysis and manuscript preparation. LW, YC, and KY were responsible for recruiting the patients, performing the clinical rating and collecting the clinical data. LW, MQ and MX were evolving the ideas and editing the manuscript. MQ and MX were involved in writing the protocol, and cowrote the paper. All authors have contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Miao Qu or Meihong Xiu.

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Wen, L., Yang, K., Cao, Y. et al. Parental marital status and anxiety symptoms in adolescents: the mediating effect of childhood maltreatment. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-023-01717-4

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