Parents' Depression Linked to Kids' Low School Performance

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A recent study from Sweden, published in JAMA Psychiatry, reveals that parents' depressions is linked to their children's' poor performance in school.

According to the researchers, parental depression has a big impact their child's neurodevelopmental, behavioral, emotional, mental, and social development. To test the connection between parental depression and children's' school performance, the researchers examined patients diagnosed with depression from 1969 onwards as well as those who were diagnosed in 2001. These data was then coupled with collected school grades of 1,124,162 biological children born from 1984 to 1994 in Sweden.

Using the collected school grades from the sample, the team of researchers analyzed and compared it with five particular stages in a child's life: before birth, after birth, age 1 to 5, age 6 to 10, age 11 to 16 and before the last year of "compulsory schooling."

As a result, of the 1,124,162 children in Sweden born between 1984 and 1994, the study revealed that about 3 percent of their mothers and 2 percent of their fathers are suffering from depression when they are around 16 years old or before the last year of compulsory education. The researchers noted that these kids with depressed parents had lower grades; thus, having low school performance.

"We obviously know that depression is a bad thing like any other mental health outcome. It’s less recognized that mental health outcomes affect other people than the people themselves. So for parents or guardians, a vulnerable population would be their children." said senior author Brian Lee of the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia, as quoted by Reuters.

The study published in JAMA Psychiatry also notes that maternal depression affects daughters more compared to sons.

In a write-up by Dr. Myrna M. Weissman entitled "Children of Depressed Parents—A Public Health Opportunity" published in JAMA Psychiatry, Weissman said that "biological offspring of depressed parents (usually mothers are studied) themselves have considerable emotional and functional problems, usually depression and anxiety." Weissman added that the effect of parental depression may also continue until these children grow old.

What Weissman said is in corroboration with the conclusion of the researchers, who studied the children in Sweden. The researchers said that "diagnoses of parental depression may have a far-reaching effect on an important aspect of child development, with implications for future life course outcomes."

Weissman highlighted the importance of treating parents diagnosed with depression to avoid having negative effects on their children. "Depression is a real illness. Depressed patients are awfully hard on themselves. They should be told it’s not their fault," she said as quoted by Reuters.