The gendered relationship between maternal depression and adolescent internalizing symptoms

It is well-established that adolescents whose mothers are depressed are themselves more likely to experience internalizing symptoms (e.g., depressive and anxiety symptoms). Even as extensive work shows that internalizing symptoms are more prevalent among adolescent girls compared to boys, it is unclear if the maternal-offspring mental health relationship is gender-neutral or gender-specific: Does maternal depression act as an equalizing force for adolescents' risk of internalizing symptoms, or does it contribute to adolescent gender differences? This study analyzes whether adolescent gender moderates the association between maternal depression and adolescent internalizing symptoms using data from the Year-15 survey of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which follows a cohort of children born in large U.S. cities, primarily to unmarried parents. This sample of 2159 primary caregiver mothers and adolescent offspring (ages 14-18 years) has numerous social risk factors for internalizing symptoms, affording the opportunity to carefully assess the possibly gendered nature of mother adolescent linkages. Adjusted ordinary least squares regression models showed that maternal depression is associated with significantly higher adolescent depressive and anxiety symptoms. However, the relationship between maternal depression and adolescent internalizing symptoms is substantially larger for daughters compared to sons. The gendered nature of these concurrent mother-adolescent symptoms highlights the need to consider the effect of gender on other risk processes within families. Moreover, the strong clustering of internalizing symptoms among mothers and daughters highlights the value of prevention and treatment efforts that attend to adult and adolescent mental health simultaneously.