Hancock Mitrou Shipley 2013

This study used data from LSAC, a nationally representative study of Australian children and their families. In-home interviews were held at each wave with the primary carer residing with the study child (Parent 1). The mental health histories of maternal and paternal grandparents of the study child were collected retrospectively from the Parent 1 and Parent 2 self-complete questionnaires at Wave 2. The Kessler K6 scale [22] assessed mothers’ and fathers’ level of non-specific psychological distress in the self-complete questionnaire. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) [27] was used to measure emotional and behavioral problems when the B cohort were 4–5 years and the K cohort 8–9 years. Multivariate linear regression analyses were used to examine the relative effects of parent and grandparent mental health status on mean SDQ scores, after controlling for the family and demographic covariates specified above.

The study used LSAC data and interviewed each child’s main caregiver. Grandparents’ mental health was reported by parents from memory at Wave 2. Parents’ distress was measured with the K6 scale, and children’s emotional and behavioural problems were measured with the SDQ at ages 4–5 and 8–9. Finally, statistical analysis was used to see how parents’ and grandparents’ mental health affected children’s SDQ scores, after controlling for family background factors.

Children of parents with mental illness are at significantly greater risk for multiple psychosocial problems [1–4]. These children are also more likely to experience developmental delays, lower academic competence and difficulty with social relationships [5–7].

By virtue of these parent–child mental health relationships, it follows that the mental health histories of grandparents could have some influence on the mental health of their grandchildren. This may occur through a direct relationship with the child, or through their indirect relationship with the child via the parents.

This study examined multi-generational mental health associations in Australian families in order to further understand the nature of intergenerational mental health associations. We used data from Growing Up in Australia, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) to investigate how mental health problems in two generations of family members impacted upon children’s subsequent social and emotional wellbeing.

We hypothesized parents would be at greater risk of mental health problems if their own parents (hereafter to be called grandparents) had a history of mental health problems. Second, children would be more likely to have poorer social and emotional wellbeing if they had a grandparent with a history of mental health problems.

If parents have mental illness, their children are more likely to have mental or social problems. These children may also have a harder time growing, learning, and making friends.

Since parents’ mental health can affect children, grandparents’ mental health may affect grandchildren too. This could happen through direct contact with the child, or indirectly through the parents.

This study wanted to understand how mental health is connected across three generations in Australian families. The researchers used data from a large study called LSAC to see if parents’ and grandparents’ mental health problems affect children’s later social and emotional wellbeing.

The researchers guessed that: If grandparents have mental health problems, parents are more likely to have mental health problems too; children are more likely to have social and emotional problems.

In unadjusted analyses, mean SDQ scores for both cohorts of children were higher when either the mother or father had elevated psychological distress (see Table 3).

After controlling for parental mental health and other covariates, a history of mental health problems in maternal grandmothers and grandfathers was associated with higher SDQ scores, but only for the 8–9 year old children.

The results showed that children had higher SDQ scores — meaning more emotional and behavioural problems — when their parents had higher psychological distress.

For children aged 8–9, even after controlling for parents’ mental health and other family factors, a history of mental health problems in maternal grandmothers or grandfathers was still linked to higher SDQ scores in the children.

The second notable finding of this study is that a history of broadly defined nervous and emotional mental health problems in grandparents is associated with elevated SDQ scores, even after controlling for elevated psychological distress in parents.

This result suggests that children are susceptible to the mental health influence of grandparents, and supports the notion of some direct impact of grandparental mental health on children.

This study found that grandparents’ mental health history was linked to grandchildren’s SDQ scores, even after controlling for parents’ mental health. This suggests that children may be directly affected by their grandparents’ mental health, not just through their parents.

Future research should use more detailed and reliable measures of grandparents’ mental health, rather than relying on parents’ memories. It should also study how the amount and quality of contact between grandparents and grandchildren affects their mental health. In addition, future studies should look at whether these effects are caused by genes, shared environment, or both, and follow families over a longer period of time to see how mental health changes across generations.

The part I found most challenging to understand was the statistical analysis, especially the multivariate linear regression models in Table 5. I could understand the basic idea — that the researchers were checking whether grandparents’ mental health was linked to children’s SDQ scores while controlling for other factors — but I had difficulty interpreting the interaction terms and the confidence intervals. It would help if someone could explain what the interaction terms mean in plain language and how to tell whether a result is statistically significant.