Bidirectional effects between maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing problems across six years in Northern Ireland.

Luningham, Justin M ORCID: 0000-0002-5037-9149, Wentz, Bethany, Merrilees, Christine E, Taylor, Laura K ORCID: 0000-0002-2353-2398, Goeke-Morey, Marcie C, Shirlow, Peter ORCID: 0000-0002-7483-9859, Shannon, Tess and Cummings, E Mark (2022) Bidirectional effects between maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing problems across six years in Northern Ireland. JCPP advances, 2 (2). e12078-.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12078

Abstract

<h4>Background</h4>Emerging evidence indicates the existence of bidirectional relations between mothers' mental health and adolescent adjustment, but few studies have examined these relations in contexts of high environmental adversity, including economic deprivation and political violence. Given other empirical connections between political violence and adolescent adjustment problems, the impact of child adjustment problems on maternal mental health may be exacerbated in contexts of sectarian violence.<h4>Methods</h4>Addressing this gap, latent change score modeling was used to examine interrelations between trajectories of maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing symptoms over time in communities afflicted by political conflict. Over six years, 999 adolescent-mother dyads participated in a longitudinal study in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Six-hundred ninety-five families were originally recruited in year 1, with 304 recruited to supplement the sample in year 3; the largest available sample for a given year was 760 dyads. Models including maternal mental health, adolescent internalizing symptomatology, and political violence (i.e., sectarian antisocial behavior) as a time-varying covariate were tested.<h4>Results</h4>Results demonstrated that for both mothers and adolescents in a dyadic pairing, higher rates of symptomology in one member of the dyad were related to symptoms observed in the other member. Results also suggest that political violence and factors related to social deprivation increased symptoms across the dyad.<h4>Conclusion</h4>This study advances understanding of the bidirectional impact between maternal mental health and adolescent internalizing over time in contexts of political violence.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	adversity, family functioning, internalising disorder, longitudinal studies, maternal factors
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Histories, Languages and Cultures
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	14 Feb 2023 10:43
Last Modified:	14 Feb 2023 10:43
DOI:	10.1002/jcv2.12078
Open Access URL:	https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.12078
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3168396