Data from WHO suggests that depression is common in all regions of the world. Because of the high correlation with suicide, depression carries a high risk for the public health. Mounting evidence from genetic behavioral studies indicated that depression is heritable, and the effect of parental depression on adolescents’ depression draws a lot attention. The adoption study suggested environment factors play an important role in the association between parental depression and adolescent depression after taking the genetic influence into consideration. However, the majority of studies focused on the effect from parental depression to child depression, and fewer studies explored the effect of child depression on parental depression, named child-driven effect. In the frame of the bio-ecological theory and the transaction model, we explored the reciprocal relationship between maternal/paternal depression and adolescents’ depression using a cross-lagged model and examined the mediating effect of parenting in the relationship between maternal/paternal depression and adolescent depression with the gender-specific effect into consideration. Data for the present study were collected from a longitudinal study named the National Survey of Adolescent Mental Health in China (AMHC). A short version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale was used to examine adolescents and their parents’ depression. Adolescents and their parents reported nurturant-involved and harsh-inconsistent parenting by responding to the scale adapted from the Iowa Youth and Families Project. Seven hundred and eighty five boys and 859 girls participated in the longitudinal study, aged from 10 to 16 years old at the initial investigation with an average age of 12.99±1.84 for boys and 12.96±1.87 for girls, respectively. Study one aimed to examine the trajectories of adolescents’ depression for boys and girls in China using the cohort-sequential design. It turns out that both boys and girls follow a linear increase pattern in depression during adolescence. Based on the finding of Study one, Study two was to examine the reciprocal relationship between maternal/paternal depression and adolescents’ depression taking the moderating effect of gender into consideration. The results suggested that the bidirectional relationship between maternal depression and adolescents’ depression was evident although the effect of adolescents’ depression was stronger than the vice versa. Adolescents’ depression significantly predicted paternal depression but not vice versa. Study three was to examine the mediating effect of parenting on the relationship between parental depression and adolescents’ depression. The findings indicated that besides of the direct effect, adolescents’ depression also played an indirect effect on maternal/paternal depression through the nurturant-involved parenting. In addition, harsh-inconsistent parenting played an indirect role in the stability of adolescent depression. Specifically, adolescents’ depression elicited parental harsh-inconsistent parenting, and harsh-inconsistent parenting strengthened adolescents’ depression later. Generally speaking, adolescents were not just affected by parental depression passively but had influence on parental depression actively. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
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