Anyone who grows up with mentally ill parents has an increased risk of developing mental problems later in life. This raises the question: Is a genetic predisposition responsible for the transfer or growing up in a correspondingly stressed parents' house? In two studies, the results of which were published in the summer of 2022, research teams from the USA and Canada got to the bottom of the matter.
A group led by Alexandra Burt from Michigan State University evaluated data from 720 families who had participated in a long-term study on child development. Some children grew up with both biological parents, others with a step-parent. In most cases, the latter was the stepfather, which is why the evaluation was limited to the transfer of psychopathology from the father to the children.
Children from patchwork families were generally more psychologically polluted than those who grew up with both biological parents: As a teenager, they suffered more often from depressive symptoms and concentration problems, and they also noticed by antisocial behavior. The same was true for young people with a father who suffered from depression. The researchers found hardly any differences between siblings within a family, even if some children were genetically related and others. This indicates that the family conditions and the growing together in the parents' house affected psychopathology more than the genes, said Burt and colleagues. In fact, the connection between fatherly depression and psychological abnormalities of the children could be explained in part by increased conflicts and disputes in the family.
Daughters take over the fears of their mothers, sons take over the fears of their fathers
Another study examined whether parents can transfer anxiety to their children. The team led by Barbara Pavlova from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, interviewed 398 children aged around eleven years and their parents, if available. Anxiety disorders are also passed on by one generation to the next - but gender -specific: from mothers to the daughters and from fathers to the sons. In contrast, anxiety diseases of the different -sex parent played almost no role.
According to the researchers, this result also suggests that the family environment has a greater significance for the transmission of mental disorders than genetic similarities. Role model and imitation effects led to the fact that daughters unconsciously oriented themselves more to the mother, sons more to the father. Pavlova and her colleagues recommend that parents have an anxiety disorder treated in a timely manner: this would allow them to protect their children from transmission.
