Adverse parenting and other childhood experience as risk factors for depression in women aged 18–44 years

Abstract

65 women who had experienced a recent major depressive disorder, and 81 women who had never been depressed, were recruited from a community probability sample. The two groups of women were compared with regard to a number of childhood experiences, including parenting style, which was assessed with the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI). When all the childhood factors were considered simultaneously in a logistic regression analysis, only low maternal care was significantly associated with recent depressive episodes. Low maternal care increased the risk of recent major depression ≈ 4-fold and the estimate of the population attributable risk was 35%. These findings give further weight to the contention that adverse parenting in childhood, particularly a maternal parenting style typified by low care, is a significant risk factor for adult depression.