Intergenerational Transmission of Depression and Anxiety: Offspring’s Temperament as a Mediator in the Association between Gender and Severity of Symptoms

Abstract

Introduction: A parental history of depression and/or anxiety puts offspring at an ultra-high emergence risk of the same themselves, with girls showing a more severe symptomatology. With temperament being implicated as one of the factors influencing these disorders, the present study – the first of its kind – examined whether different temperamental traits mediated the association between female gender and severity of symptoms in an offspring sample. Methods: A sample of 524 (57.1% female) offspring was analyzed. Parental disorders were assessed by the means of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview, temperament by the Adult Temperament Questionnaire, depression and anxiety by a DSM-IV self-report questionnaire. T-statistics and regression analyses were deployed. Results: Female gender was related to a higher severity of depressive and anxious symptoms. Negative affect, affiliativeness and orienting sensitivity were higher among girls and correlated positively with depression/anxiety severity. Though showing no relations to gender, extraversion and effortful control were negatively associated with depression/ anxiety severity. Conclusion: A mediating role of the risk factors negative affect, affiliativeness and orienting sensitivity in the association between female gender and severity of symptoms could be substantiated. Extraversion and effortful control were shown to play a protective role towards depression/anxiety severity. An anamnestic assessment of pathological deviations of temperamental traits in offspring could help identify susceptibilities to these disorders. Psycho-education and systemic targeted interventions could be beneficial measures, though prospective longitudinal research is required towards identifying optimal interventions.