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Parenting Stress and Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Parents of Children With and Without Oppositional Defiant Disorder: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

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Abstract

Parents of children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) experience greater stress in parenting and more parental depressive symptoms. The study examined the longitudinal and bidirectional associations between three dimensions of parenting stress (i.e., parental distress, parent–child dysfunctional interaction, and difficult child) and parental depressive symptoms from a sample of Chinese parents of children with or without ODD. The sample included 256 parents of children with ODD and 265 parents of children without ODD, along with children’s teachers. Using a three wave, cross-lagged design, results showed that parents of children with ODD suffered higher levels of parenting stress across three dimensions. For both groups, the links between parental depressive symptoms and subsequent parental distress and difficult child were unidirectional, whereas the relation between parental depressive symptoms and parent–child dysfunctional interaction was bidirectional. Multi-group analysis found that there was no significant difference in the relations between parenting stress and depressive symptoms between the ODD and non-ODD groups. The findings indicated that children with ODD require comprehensive services to address the stress of their parents. The study also provided support for the dynamic and longitudinal relations between specific dimensions of parenting stress and depressive symptoms among parents of children with or without ODD.

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Funding

The study described in this report was Funded by 13th Beijing Education Science Planning Foundation (Grant Number BAEA17039). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Beijing Education Science Planning Foundation Committee. We are appreciative of the parents, children, and teachers who participated in our study and the many people who assisted in data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Ting He, Yongqiang Jiang & Xiuyun Lin

  2. Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Jinni Su

  3. State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Shaozheng Qin

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau SAR, China

    Peilian Chi

  5. Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Xiuyun Lin

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  1. Ting He
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Correspondence to Xiuyun Lin.

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Prior to conducting the study, the Institutional Review Board of Beijing Normal University in China approved the research protocol, including the consent procedure. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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He, T., Su, J., Jiang, Y. et al. Parenting Stress and Depressive Symptoms Among Chinese Parents of Children With and Without Oppositional Defiant Disorder: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 51, 855–867 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-00974-x

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