The association between recalled parental rearing behavior and depressiveness: a comparison between 1st immigrants and non-immigrants in the population-based Gutenberg Health Study

Abstract

Background

Studies in immigrant youth have suggested differences in parenting patterns by immigration status. Knowledge of variation in recalled parenting pattern and its distinctive impact on mental health in adult immigrants, however, is limited. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate similarities and differences in recalled maternal and paternal rearing behavior and its association with depressiveness in adult 1st generation immigrants compared to non-immigrants.

Methods

Seven hundred and forty-three 1st generation immigrants ( M = 57.4, SD = 10.1 years) and 6518 non-immigrants ( M = 60.3, SD = 10.7 years) participated in a population-based study. Regarding countries of origin, the largest subgroups were immigrants from Eastern-Europe, Former-SU, and Arabic-Islamic countries. All participants completed the ultra-short version of The Recalled Parental Rearing Behavior-questionnaire and the PHQ-9 assessing depressiveness. Multiple linear regressions with depressiveness as outcome variable were analyzed separately for each facet of parental rearing behavior adjusting for socio-demographic and migration-related variables.

Results

In addition to differences in depressiveness and socioeconomic status, 1st generation immigrants recalled both their mothers and fathers as more controlling and overprotecting than non-immigrants. Parental emotional warmth was negatively associated with depressiveness across all groups. The relationship between parental control, respectively parental rejection and depressiveness, however, varied in direction and severity between the groups.

Conclusion

The results support the notion that parental warmth is a universal protective factor against depressiveness, whereas the impact of parental control on mental health might be more culturally influenced. Analyses point to the importance of considering the unique contribution of fathers’ rearing behavior on mental health, particularly in immigrant samples.

Contributors

Eva M. Klein:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0039-7805

[e-mail]

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Psychiatry

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Psychiatry

Title: BMC Psychiatry

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-244X

Publication date (Electronic): 13 July 2020

Publication date PMC-release: 13 July 2020

Publication date Collection: 2020

Volume: 20

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.410607.4, Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, , University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, ; Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany

[2 ]GRID grid.410607.4, Medical Psychology and Sociology, , University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, ; Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany

[3 ]GRID grid.410607.4, Preventive Cardiology and Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine 2, , University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, ; Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany

[4 ]GRID grid.410607.4, Center for Thrombosis and Hemostasis (CTH), , University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, ; Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany

[5 ]GRID grid.452396.f, ISNI 0000 0004 5937 5237, German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK), partner site Rhine-Main, ; Mainz, Germany

[6 ]GRID grid.410607.4, Center for Cardiology I, , University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, ; Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany

[7 ]GRID grid.410607.4, Institute for Medical Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics (IMBEI), , University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, ; Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany

[8 ]GRID grid.410607.4, Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, , University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, ; Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany

[9 ]GRID grid.410607.4, Department of Ophthalmology, , University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, ; Langenbeckstraße 1, 55131 Mainz, Germany

Article

Publisher ID: 2755

DOI: 10.1186/s12888-020-02755-1

PMC ID: 7358206

PubMed ID: 32660581

Copyright statement: © The Author(s) 2020

License:

Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004346, Stiftung Rheinland-Pfalz für Innovation;

Award ID: AZ 961-386261/733

Funded by: “Wissen schafft Zukunft” and “Center for Translational Vascular Biology (CTVB)” of the Johannes Gutenberg- University of Mainz, and its contract with Boehringer Ingelheim and PHILIPS Medical Systems

Funded by: DFG Research Training Group “Life Sciences, Life Writing”

Award ID: GRK2015/2

Categories

Subject: Research Article

Custom metadata

issue-copyright-statement © The Author(s) 2020