Cargando…
Life-Events Mediate the Prediction of Parental Alienation on Depression in Rural Left-Behind Children: A Longitudinal Study
OBJECTIVES: Long-time separation with parents during early life, such as left-behind children (LBC, one or both of whose parents are leaving for work for at least a period of 6 months), may contribute to high alienation toward parents and endanger their mental health (e.g., depression). However, the...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9247398/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35782429 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.864751 |
_version_ | 1784739156857978880 |
---|---|
author | Qin, Xuemei Sun, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Mengjia Chen, Beijing Xie, Fei Chen, Zhaohua Shen, Sitong Wen, Chong Ren, Xiaomei Dai, Qin |
author_facet | Qin, Xuemei Sun, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Mengjia Chen, Beijing Xie, Fei Chen, Zhaohua Shen, Sitong Wen, Chong Ren, Xiaomei Dai, Qin |
author_sort | Qin, Xuemei |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: Long-time separation with parents during early life, such as left-behind children (LBC, one or both of whose parents are leaving for work for at least a period of 6 months), may contribute to high alienation toward parents and endanger their mental health (e.g., depression). However, the dynamic status of depression and potential prediction of alienation on depression in LBC remained largely unknown. This study aimed to examine the dynamic status of depression, prediction of alienation toward parents on later depression in rural LBC, and a potential mediation of life-events. METHODS: A total of 877 LBC in rural areas of China were recruited and surveyed at five time-points (baseline, T0: 1-month, T1: 3-months, T2: 6-months, T3: 12-months, T4) with the Inventory of Alienation Toward Parents, Childhood Depression Inventory, and Adolescent Self-Rating Life-Events Checklist. The Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) and Hayes's PROCESS macro model were conducted to estimate the developmental trend and hierarchical predictors of depression. RESULTS: The left-behind children aged 9-years old experienced higher depression than the children with other ages. At baseline, the children in the family atmosphere of frequent quarrels and compulsive parenting style reported a higher level of alienation toward parents, life-events, and depression. Alienation toward parents, life-events, and depression were positively and moderately correlated with each other (r = 0.14 ~ 0.64). The HLM model depicted a linear decline in depression, alienation, and life-events with an average rate of 0.23, 0.24, and 0.86, respectively, during the five time-points. Also, T0 alienation toward parents and T0 life-events positively predicted the developmental trajectory of depression over time, and T0 life-events positively predicted the descendant rate of depression. Notably, life-events mediated the prediction of baseline alienation toward parents on T4 depression in LBC. CONCLUSION: This study is among the first to reveal that alienation toward parents predicts the developmental trajectory of later depression in LBC. The findings that life-events mediate the prediction of alienation on later depression further suggest the importance of family and social factors in the occurrence of depression in LBC. The findings warrant the necessity to consider the family and social factors when evaluating and reducing risks for mental health problems in LBC, i.e., relationship with parents (especially alienation toward parents) and life-events need further attention. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9247398 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-92473982022-07-02 Life-Events Mediate the Prediction of Parental Alienation on Depression in Rural Left-Behind Children: A Longitudinal Study Qin, Xuemei Sun, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Mengjia Chen, Beijing Xie, Fei Chen, Zhaohua Shen, Sitong Wen, Chong Ren, Xiaomei Dai, Qin Front Psychiatry Psychiatry OBJECTIVES: Long-time separation with parents during early life, such as left-behind children (LBC, one or both of whose parents are leaving for work for at least a period of 6 months), may contribute to high alienation toward parents and endanger their mental health (e.g., depression). However, the dynamic status of depression and potential prediction of alienation on depression in LBC remained largely unknown. This study aimed to examine the dynamic status of depression, prediction of alienation toward parents on later depression in rural LBC, and a potential mediation of life-events. METHODS: A total of 877 LBC in rural areas of China were recruited and surveyed at five time-points (baseline, T0: 1-month, T1: 3-months, T2: 6-months, T3: 12-months, T4) with the Inventory of Alienation Toward Parents, Childhood Depression Inventory, and Adolescent Self-Rating Life-Events Checklist. The Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) and Hayes's PROCESS macro model were conducted to estimate the developmental trend and hierarchical predictors of depression. RESULTS: The left-behind children aged 9-years old experienced higher depression than the children with other ages. At baseline, the children in the family atmosphere of frequent quarrels and compulsive parenting style reported a higher level of alienation toward parents, life-events, and depression. Alienation toward parents, life-events, and depression were positively and moderately correlated with each other (r = 0.14 ~ 0.64). The HLM model depicted a linear decline in depression, alienation, and life-events with an average rate of 0.23, 0.24, and 0.86, respectively, during the five time-points. Also, T0 alienation toward parents and T0 life-events positively predicted the developmental trajectory of depression over time, and T0 life-events positively predicted the descendant rate of depression. Notably, life-events mediated the prediction of baseline alienation toward parents on T4 depression in LBC. CONCLUSION: This study is among the first to reveal that alienation toward parents predicts the developmental trajectory of later depression in LBC. The findings that life-events mediate the prediction of alienation on later depression further suggest the importance of family and social factors in the occurrence of depression in LBC. The findings warrant the necessity to consider the family and social factors when evaluating and reducing risks for mental health problems in LBC, i.e., relationship with parents (especially alienation toward parents) and life-events need further attention. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9247398/ /pubmed/35782429 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.864751 Text en Copyright © 2022 Qin, Sun, Zhang, Chen, Xie, Chen, Shen, Wen, Ren and Dai. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychiatry Qin, Xuemei Sun, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Mengjia Chen, Beijing Xie, Fei Chen, Zhaohua Shen, Sitong Wen, Chong Ren, Xiaomei Dai, Qin Life-Events Mediate the Prediction of Parental Alienation on Depression in Rural Left-Behind Children: A Longitudinal Study |
title | Life-Events Mediate the Prediction of Parental Alienation on Depression in Rural Left-Behind Children: A Longitudinal Study |
title_full | Life-Events Mediate the Prediction of Parental Alienation on Depression in Rural Left-Behind Children: A Longitudinal Study |
title_fullStr | Life-Events Mediate the Prediction of Parental Alienation on Depression in Rural Left-Behind Children: A Longitudinal Study |
title_full_unstemmed | Life-Events Mediate the Prediction of Parental Alienation on Depression in Rural Left-Behind Children: A Longitudinal Study |
title_short | Life-Events Mediate the Prediction of Parental Alienation on Depression in Rural Left-Behind Children: A Longitudinal Study |
title_sort | life-events mediate the prediction of parental alienation on depression in rural left-behind children: a longitudinal study |
topic | Psychiatry |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9247398/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35782429 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.864751 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT qinxuemei lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy AT sunxiaoxiao lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy AT zhangmengjia lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy AT chenbeijing lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy AT xiefei lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy AT chenzhaohua lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy AT shensitong lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy AT wenchong lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy AT renxiaomei lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy AT daiqin lifeeventsmediatethepredictionofparentalalienationondepressioninruralleftbehindchildrenalongitudinalstudy |