1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This study examined prospective associations between depressive symptoms and 2 aspects of perceived parent-child relationships (positive communication and conflit with parent) during 3 consecutive years of early adolescence.» (p. 171)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«Based on interpersonal and family systems theories of depression […], we expected to find reciprocal associations between depressive symptoms and parent-child relationships rather than unidirectional relationship effects or symptoms effects.» (p. 171)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«Participant were a cohort of students who took part in the evaluation of the NANS [New Approaches, NEw Solutions] program, a large-scale governmental initiative aimed at preventing student drop out in secondary schools of disadvantaged areas. This longitudinal data set includes French-speaking students from the low SES [socioeconomic status] secondary schools across the province of Quebec […].» (p. 171) L’échantillon compte 3862 étudiants.

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«The main implication of our study is to support clinically informed models that consider not only effects of family relationships on depressive symptoms but also the detrimental impact of child symptomatology on parent-child relationships. Our findings also highlight that depressive symptomatology can relate in specific ways to different dimensions of parent-child relationships and perhaps also to different aspects within these dimensions (for example, positive communication, compared with support). Because impaired transactional patterns between teenagers with depression and their parents appear to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of mood disorders, improvement of these transactions is likely to represent an effective target of prevention and intervention. Intervening jointly with youth and their parents on specific relationship difficulties could be helpful to interrupt circular patterns that challenge adolescent and family emotional health.» (p. 175)