Symptoms Causal Relationships Between The Age Of Parents When They Have Children, And Rates Of Depression

This article from the Journal of Abnormal Psychology seeks to uncover causal relationships between the age of parents when they have children, and rates of depression, anxiety, and stress in those children. Researchers utilized data collected by the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study in order to compile this article. A total of 1200 participants completed the study, which included a shortened version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, and follow ups at ages 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 14, 17, 20, and 23 (Robinson et al., 2016). There have been many prior studies examining parental ages and the prevalence of mental health diagnosis among offspring. Of these, there is significant research on both older and younger parents and how their ages effect the chances of psychiatric disorders in their children. It has been shown that the children of teenaged mothers are 51 percent more likely to have a psychiatric diagnosis, and the children of teen fathers are 28 percent more likely (Robinson et al., 2016). There is also evidence of increased risk of schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and possibly bi polar disorder in the children of older fathers, and increased likelihood of autism spectrum disorder and bi polar disorder in the offspring of older mothers (Robinson et al., 2016). While there is plenty of research regarding maternal and paternal age influencing offspring psychiatric diagnosis, there is little research in terms of parental age influencing…