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Intergenerational Transmission of Rumination via Parenting Behaviors and Family Characteristics: The Impact on Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms

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Abstract

The relationship between rumination and internalizing psychopathology across the lifespan is robustly documented, yet the development of rumination is not well understood. In a prospective study of adolescents (N = 629, M age = 13.05 years, 51.5% female, 48.3% African American/Black) and their primary female caregivers (90.6% biological mothers), self-report measures of rumination, parental behaviors, family characteristics, and internalizing symptoms were completed. Maternal rumination was not predictive of adolescent rumination, but was associated with less effective parenting and maladaptive family characteristics. Neither parenting behaviors nor family characteristics predicted adolescent rumination. The indirect effects of maternal rumination on adolescent rumination through parenting behaviors and family characteristics were non-significant. The well-established relationship between adolescent rumination and internalizing symptoms was replicated, but there was no evidence of the intergenerational process impacting these symptoms. The findings do not support intergenerational transmission of rumination via parenting behaviors and family characteristics.

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Notes

  1. The time interval between Time 3 and Time 4 is shorter because of the assessment schedule of Project ACE in which the CDI and MASC are administered to adolescents at every session.

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Funding

Funding for this work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grants MH079369 and MH101168 to Lauren B. Alloy and by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Grant No. 1650457 to Erin E. Dunning.

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  1. Erin E. Dunning and Samantha Birk have contributed equally to this manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Erin E. Dunning, Samantha Birk, Thomas M. Olino & Lauren B. Alloy

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  1. Erin E. Dunning
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  2. Samantha Birk
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  3. Thomas M. Olino
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  4. Lauren B. Alloy
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Correspondence to Lauren B. Alloy.

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All procedures performed in Project ACE were in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Temple University.

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Dunning, E.E., Birk, S., Olino, T.M. et al. Intergenerational Transmission of Rumination via Parenting Behaviors and Family Characteristics: The Impact on Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 53, 27–38 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01104-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01104-3

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