Association of maladaptive parental behavior with psychiatric disorder among parents and their offspring

Background: A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the role of m aladaptive parental behavior in the association between parent and offsprin g psychiatric disorder. Methods: Psychosocial and psychiatric interviews were administered to a rep resentative community sample of 593 biological parents and their offspring from 2 counties in the state of New York in 1975, 1983, 1985 to 1986, and 1 991 to 1993. In 1975, the offspring were a mean age of 6 years. Maladaptive parental behavior was assessed in 1975, 1983, and 1985 to 1986. Parent and offspring psychiatric symptoms were assessed in 1983, 1985 to 1986, and 19 91 to 1993. Results: Maladaptive parental behavior substantially mediated a significant association between parental and offspring psychiatric symptoms. Parents w ith psychiatric disorders had higher levels of maladaptive behavior in the household than did parents without psychiatric disorders. Maladaptive paren tal behavior, in turn, was associated with increased offspring risk for psy chiatric disorders during adolescence and early adulthood. Most of the yout hs that experienced high levels of maladaptive parental behavior during chi ldhood had psychiatric disorders during adolescence or early adulthood, whe ther or not their parents had psychiatric disorders. In contrast, the offsp ring of parents with psychiatric disorders were not at increased risk for p sychiatric disorders unless there was a history of maladaptive parental beh avior. Conclusions: Maladaptive parental behavior is associated with increased ris k for the development of psychiatric disorders among the offspring of paren ts with and without psychiatric disorders. Maladaptive parental behavior ap pears to be an important mediator of the association between parental and o ffspring psychiatric symptoms.