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Trajectories of mother-child and father-child relationships across middle childhood and associations with depressive symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2018

Jia Yan ,
Sarah J. Schoppe-Sullivan  and
Xin Feng
Jia Yan*
Affiliation:
Department of Human Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Sarah J. Schoppe-Sullivan
Affiliation:
Department of Human Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Xin Feng
Affiliation:
Department of Human Sciences, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Jia Yan, Department of Human Sciences, The Ohio State University, 1787 Neil Avenue, 135 Campbell Hall, Columbus, OH 43210; Email: yan.775@osu.edu
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Abstract

Using a family systems perspective, we examined the trajectories of father-child and mother-child closeness and conflict across Grades 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6, and their associations with child depressive symptoms across middle childhood among 685 families in the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD). Father-child and mother-child relationship conflict increased, whereas relationship closeness decreased from Grades 1 to 6. Girls with more slowly increasing father-child conflict, and more slowly decreasing father-child closeness, were at lower risk for depressive symptoms. Boys with more slowly increasing mother-child conflict were at lower risk for depressive symptoms. These findings highlight the important roles of both father-child and mother-child relationships in children's emotional adjustment during middle childhood.

Keywords

child depressive symptomsfather-child relationshipsmiddle childhoodparent-child closenessparent-child conflict
Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 31 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 1381 - 1393
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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