Study reveals how timing of parental depression impacts mental health in adult offspring

New Haven, Conn. —  A new Yale study reveals the distinct timing effects of maternal and paternal depression on adult mental health outcomes in the next generation, including influences on depression, anxiety, and psychotic disorders. 

A research team led by Kieran O’Donnell at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) found pregnancy to be a sensitive period, with exposure to high levels of maternal depression during this time alone predictive of psychosis risk in adult offspring. This points to the importance of adequate mental health support during pregnancy, they say.  

The effects of maternal depression on adult symptoms of depression were also detected across childhood, in addition to the pregnancy time period, while paternal effects emerged from mid-childhood. The findings were published online by JAMA Network Open. 

For the study, O’Donnell and his team used a statistical framework borrowed from econometrics to analyze the effects of parental depression, assessed from pregnancy through 21 years of age, on adult mental health outcomes in a 30-year study of more than 5,000 participants.  

“This is one of the most comprehensive studies — if not the most comprehensive — to ask if there are sensitive periods or developmental stages when exposure to parental depression has a particularly strong impact on later mental health,” said O'Donnell, an associate professor at Yale Child Study Center and in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at YSM.

"Finding that parental mental health was important for long-term mental health outcomes in the next generation was not surprising, and is consistent with previous studies,” he said. “What did come as a surprise was the clear difference in the patterns of associations between maternal and paternal depression and each mental health outcome we studied, as well as the distinct timing effects of mother’s versus father’s depression. These findings suggest that multiple and possibly distinct mechanisms underlie the associations between maternal and paternal depression and offspring mental health ” 

One of the goals of the study was to investigate potential developmental windows when parental interventions might be particularly effective in promoting mental health in the next generation. Study findings suggest that earlier is better and providing adequate mental health support for parents in pregnancy is critically important.  

“Our findings also highlight the importance of checking in on parents' mental health across childhood,” O’Donnell added. “Doing so will benefit parents and may also have a positive benefit on the long-term mental health outcomes of their children.”