Familial Depressive Symptoms and Delinquency: Separate Self-Reports From Mothers and Their Offspring

Abstract

Research has documented that both unipolar and bipolar depression are positively correlated with involvement in delinquency and crime. The present study sought to broaden the understanding of these relationships by looking for links between offending and family histories of depressive symptoms in relationship to offspring delinquency. More than 6,000 college students and their mothers provided self-reported information regarding feelings of depression. Students provided self-reports of involvement in various categories of offending and drug use from ages 10 through 18. Numerous significant positive correlations were found between general feelings of depression and of manic depression and involvement in delinquency. The depression–delinquency relationships were strongest when considering offspring themselves, although maternal depression symptoms were also associated with various forms of offspring delinquency and drug use. To help assess the causal chains that might be involved, multiple regression and mediation analysis revealed that parental depression enhanced the probability of offspring feeling depressed and may have thereby contributed to offspring being delinquent, particularly in the case of manic depression. This study reconfirmed the well-established relationship between depression and involvement in delinquency and drug use, and suggests that it extends back to parental forms of depression, especially by the mother.

Keywords

delinquency drug use general depression manic depression intergenerational depression self-reported data

Numerous studies have indicated that both unipolar (general) and bipolar (manic) depression are positively associated with involvement in delinquent and criminal behavior (reviewed by Ellis, Beaver, & Wright, 2009; Wolff & Ollendick, 2006). However, very few of these studies have examined both unipolar and bipolar depression among the same research participants.

Evidence has been inconsistent regarding which comes first: depression or offending (or childhood depression and childhood conduct disorders; Beyers & Loeber, 2003; Chen & Simons-Morton, 2009; Diamantopoulou, Verhulst, & van der Ende, 2011; Wiesner, 2003). However, two recent studies have provided support for the view that depressive symptoms are usually antecedent to both drug use (regardless of legality) and offending behavior (Fishbein, Novak, Krebs, Warner, & Hammond, 2011; Kofler et al., 2011). If findings from these latter two studies are correct, it is worth seeking to discover what most often leads up to depression among offenders.

One possibility is that parental depression contributes to offspring depression, which in turn promotes offspring delinquency. Such a possibility is bolstered by evidence that suicide attempts by parents were significantly correlated with offspring involvement in delinquency (Jennings, Maldonado-Molina, Piquero, & Canino, 2010). Nevertheless, more direct evidence is needed.

Overall, much remains to be learned about the relationship between the nature of depression and offending behavior. The present study was undertaken, first, to confirm that depression is positively correlated with involvement in delinquency. Second, it sought to determine whether specific forms of depression are associated with specific types of offending more than others. Third, given that depression (Goodman et al., 2011; Hammen, Shih, & Brennan, 2004; McGuffin & Katz, 1989) and offending behavior (Ellis et al., 2009) both tend to run in families, evidence was sought bearing on the possibility that parental depression might be associated with offspring depression and offspring delinquency.

Method

A total of 11,470 students were recruited primarily from introductory courses in psychology and sociology taught at 20 U.S. and two Canadian universities. Students completed a 10-page questionnaire in which they self-reported an extensive range of behaviors and experiences, only a few of which were the subject of analysis in the present study.

Students were asked to invite their mothers to fill out a companion nine-page questionnaire (unless the students were adopted or their mothers were no longer living). A cover letter to the mothers asked them to complete and return their questionnaire to the central research office in an addressed envelope that was totally separate from the questionnaire completed by their offspring. This resulted in 6,513 (56.8%) mother’s questionnaires being completed and matched to questionnaires completed by their offspring. Thus, the sample utilized in the present study consisted of 6,513 college students and their mothers. (Henceforth, the term offspring will be used to refer to the students.)

All questionnaires were anonymous and returned to the data collection office in separate sealed envelopes. To match individual mother–offspring questionnaire sets, common code numbers appeared on each mother–offspring questionnaire set. Verification of each match was based on two items of information provided on both questionnaires: gender of the offspring and date of birth for the offspring.

Sample Demographics

The data utilized in the present study consisted of 2,132 male and 4,381 female offspring for whom matching mother’s questionnaires were obtained. Offspring ranged in age from 18 to 56 years, with a mean of 22.55 years. Racially/ethnically, the offspring were 85% White, 4% Black, 1% Native American, 2% Asian/Pacific Islander, 2% Hispanic, and the remaining 6% provided some other answer or no answer.

The mothers ranged in age from 36 to 86 years, with a mean of 48.14 years (SD = 7.43). Years of education for the mothers ranged from 2 to 24, with a mean of 13.69 years (SD = 2.45).

Variables Measured in the Offspring’s Questionnaire

Delinquency measurement

Delinquency by the offspring was self-reported. In providing this information, the offspring were given the following list of eight offense categories and asked to report the number of times they had engaged in each offense category within the following three age ranges: 10 to 15, 16 to 18, and 19 to their present age. Because the ages of the offspring varied considerably, but they were all at least 18 years of age, the analysis was limited to offenses reportedly committed between the ages of 10 and 18. Some respondents provided extremely high estimates of the number of times they had committed certain offenses (particularly drug offenses). In these cases, the highest number recorded was 99. The eight offense categories were as follows: (a) serious violence (requiring medical treatment of the victim), (b) less serious violence (not requiring medical treatment), (c) vehicle theft, (d) theft in general, (e) vandalism, (f) illegal entry, (g) illegal drug use, and (h) illegal commerce (mainly sale of drugs).

To obtain a rough estimate of the extent to which the eight delinquency items were inter-related, we calculated Cronbach’s alpha. This yielded a .68 coefficient, suggesting that the items are all tapping into a similar trait.

Measuring self-reported depression among offspring and mothers

Especially in clinical research, most measures of depression and similar mental states or traits ask respondents to answer a series of at least 10 separate questions, which are then factor analyzed and summed to obtain an overall measure (e.g., Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961; Zung, 1965). However, for non-clinical research, several researchers in recent decades have simply asked a single straightforward question such as, “To what degree do you feel depressed?” Studies that have compared these single-item measures, especially those that allow respondents multiple response options (rather than simply yes-or-no responses), have concluded that these measures are nearly as valid and reliable as multi-item measures of the same variable (Bowling, 2005; De Boer et al., 2004; Mitchell, 2008; Theeke, Goins, Moore, & Campbell, 2012). For this reason, the present study utilized single-item measures for assessing general depressive symptoms and manic-depressive symptoms among offspring and mothers.

Depression ratings by the offspring

To measure depressive symptoms on the offspring questionnaire, three questions were asked, each of which was treated as a separate variable. First, early on in the questionnaire, offspring were given a list of 37 traits and asked to rate themselves with respect to each. One of these items was “depression.” Respondents were allowed to answer from 0 (meaning not at all) to 100 (meaning to the most extreme degree possible). Later in the questionnaire, offspring were given a list of 24 mainly psychological conditions or aliments, and asked to use the same 101-point rating scale to indicate the degree to which they had any of these conditions. One of the conditions was “manic-depression,” and the other was “depression.”

Depression ratings by the mothers

To assess depressive symptoms among the mothers, each mother was asked to self-report the extent to which (a) she, (b) the focal child, and (c) the father of the focal child exhibited depressive symptoms. The mothers were informed that they should consider the focal child to be the student who had asked them to complete the questionnaire. On the mother’s questionnaire, all ratings were made on a scale ranging from 0 (meaning not at all) to 10 (meaning to the most extreme degree possible).

The forms of depression that the mothers were asked to rate were as follows: “chronic depression,” “general depression,” “manic depression,” and “post-partum depression with the focal child.” Regarding the offspring’s father, mothers were asked to rate his “general depression” and “manic depression.” Finally, regarding the offspring, mothers were asked to rate his or her “general depression” and “manic depression.”

Gender Comparisons Regarding the Independent and Dependent Variables

In light of evidence of substantial sex differences in the prevalence of both depression and delinquency involvement (reviewed by Ellis et al., 2008), Table 1 presents the means for all of the depressive symptoms and the delinquency variables in the present study. One can see that males consistently self-reported significantly greater involvement in all eight categories of offending.

Table 1.

The Means, Standard Errors, and t Scores Regarding Offspring Gender Differences in Depression Symptoms and Delinquency.

Variables	Gender of offspring		t score	p
Variables	Male	Female	t score	p
Depressive symptom measures (as reported by mothers or by offspring)
Maternal chronic depression	1.61 (0.054)	1.53 (0.037)	1.285	.199
Maternal general depression	0.52 (0.026)	0.50 (0.018)	0.679	.497
Maternal manic depression	0.03 (0.007)	0.03 (0.005)	−0.410	.682
Postpartum depression	1.93 (0.054)	1.89 (0.037)	0.556	.578
Paternal general depression	0.23 (0.018)	0.27 (0.014)	−1.829	.067
Paternal manic depression	0.05 (0.009)	0.04 (0.006)	0.258	.797
Offspring general depression (reported by the mother)	0.23 (0.017)	0.28 (0.014)	−2.230	.026
Offspring manic depression (reported by the mother)	0.03 (0.007)	0.02 (0.004)	1.781	.014
Offspring feeling depressed (self-reported by offspring)	30.95 (26.67)	37.63 (27.54)	−12.445	.000
Offspring has general depression (self-reported by offspring)	13.67 (0.368)	16.04 (0.280)	−5.132	.000
Offspring has manic depression (self-reported by offspring)	6.34 (0.285)	5.35 (0.182)	2.944	.003
Delinquency measures (as reported by the offspring)
Serious violence	4.01 (0.293)	1.29 (0.122)	8.583	.000
Minor violence	10.11 (0.390)	5.50 (0.192)	10.598	.000
Vehicle theft	0.59 (0.102)	0.09 (0.017)	4.838	.000
Theft in general	5.28 (0.331)	2.03 (0.124)	9.194	.000
Vandalism	3.87 (0.344)	0.78 (0.058)	8.898	.000
Illegal entry	1.19 (0.104)	0.333 (0.027)	8.002	.000
Illegal drugs	8.15 (0.389)	5.16 (0.200)	6.837	.000
Illegal commerce	1.79 (0.176)	0.51 (0.041)	7.085	.000

Note. Values for the variables in italics were provided by the offspring; values for the variables in standard print were provided by the mothers.

The other clear gender differences are in self-reported depression. Whereas females rated themselves as significantly higher regarding “simple” depression, males self-rated themselves as having more manic depression than females. Consistent with these self-reports, mothers of females reported that their offspring exhibited significantly more “simple” depression, while the mothers of males rated their offspring as exhibiting significantly greater manic depression. Otherwise, no significant gender differences were evident, that is, the gender of the offspring was unrelated to any depression reported by the mother and was unrelated to her reports of depression by the offspring’s father.

Data Analysis

To assess offspring’s gender differences in the various measures of depression and criminality, t tests were employed. Pearson’s correlation was used to determine whether the various measures of depression and offspring delinquency were related. Because nearly all studies have documented gender differences in both depression and offending (Ellis et al., 2008), all correlations were performed separately for male and female offspring.

Results

The findings will be presented in two parts: (a) those involving Pearson’s correlations between the various measures of depression and offending, and (b) those in which ordinary least squares (OLS) are utilized to identify the best causal models for the depression and offending relationships.

Pearson’s Correlations

Table 2 reveals how the 11 measures of depression (eight derived from the mother’s questionnaire and three from the offspring’s questionnaire) correlate with one another. Coefficients derived for the male offspring appear above the diagonal, and those for the female offspring appear below the diagonal. The correlations among the four mother’s own depression measures are shaded in the upper left corner of the table.

Table 2.

The Inter-Correlations Between the 11 Depression Symptom Measures.

Intergenerational depression measures	Maternal chronic depression	Maternal general depression	Maternal manic depression	Maternal postpartum depression with this offspring	Paternal general depression	Paternal manic depression	Offspring general depression (mother report)	Offspring manic depression (mother report)	Offspring feeling depressed (self-report)	Offspring general depression (self-report)	Offspring manic depression (self-report)
Maternal chronic depression	—	.609****	.204****	.274****	.090***	.017	.238****	.094****	.088*	.115****	−.017
Maternal general depression	.602****	—	.192****	.303****	.292****	.080****	.448****	.081****	.057****	.058***	.014
Maternal manic depression	.249****	.199****	—	.119****	.124****	.042**	.101****	.355****	.020	.022	.030
Postpartum depression with this offspring	.226****	.250****	.067****	—	.088****	.054*	.153****	.077****	.053*	.054*	.068***
Paternal general depression	.079****	.300****	.057***	.071****	—	.297****	.300****	.094****	.037*	.061***	.041*
Paternal manic depression	.037	.071****	.037	.044*	.295****	—	.059***	.155****	.016	.003	.036*
Offspring general depression (mother report)	.209****	.406****	.089****	.133****	.362****	.079****	—	.222****	.114****	.141****	.084****
Offspring manic depression (mother report)	.090****	.111****	.149****	.043*	.079****	.152****	.226****	—	.051***	.067***	.114****
Offspring feeling depressed (self-report)	.138****	.058****	.030**	.050***	.033***	.019	.132****	.025***	—	.595****	.321****
Offspring general depression (self-report)	.123****	.076****	.017	.062**	.051**	.024	.204****	.038	.541****	—	.435****
Offspring manic depression (self-report)	.050**	.015	.012	.037	.016	.037	.084****	.090****	.287****	.375****	—

Note. Coefficients are reported separately according to the gender of the offspring, with those for males appearing in the upper right and those for females in the lower left.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .005. ****p < .001, two-tailed test.

One can see in Table 2 that the two strongest correlations were between the maternal self-report measures for maternal chronic depression and maternal general depression; that is, .609 for the mothers of males and .602 for the mothers of females (appearing in the upper shaded area of Table 2). This suggests that these two aspects of depression overlap substantially. However, the correlations between each of these two measures and those for maternal manic depression and maternal postpartum depression were much weaker (i.e., ranging from .067-.303), which indicates that these latter two forms of depression (especially manic depression) are quite different than unipolar forms of depression (albeit still positively associated to some degree). Regarding the five measures of offspring depression, one can refer to the lower right-hand corner of Table 2. Two shadings are utilized: The darker shading engulfs the three measures based on self-reports by the offspring, while the lighter shading identifies the mothers’ reports of offspring depression. As one would expect, the strongest coefficients are those between the offspring feeling depressed measure and the offspring general depression measure, which was .595 for males and .541 for females. Nevertheless, there is also a fairly high positive correlation between offspring general depression and offspring manic depression (i.e., .435 for males and .375 for females).

One can determine how the mothers’ reports of offspring depression correlated with the reports by the offspring for depression by examining the lighter shaded cells in the lower right-hand portion of Table 2. Doing so reveals that the ratings by the mothers and those by the offspring themselves correlate positively (as one would expect), but only modestly, thus suggesting that mothers are only modestly aware of any depression in their offspring.

If one examines Table 2 more broadly, it is possible to infer that depression in all its forms seems to run in families. One can see that all 11 depression measures positively correlated with one another for both male and female offspring and that in most cases, the associations are statistically significant. The main exceptions involve manic depression, which seems to correlate the least with other forms of depression, probably in part due to its relative rarity.

Table 3 presents the Pearson zero-order correlations between depression among all three family members—mother, father, and offspring—and offending by the offspring. An obvious conclusion from this table is that, as many prior studies have shown (Ellis et al., 2009), offspring depression is positively correlated with offending for nearly all types of delinquency investigated, both for males and for females alike. At least in terms of self-reports by the offspring, it is interesting to note that manic depression is more strongly correlated with offending than is general depression. The depression measure that was least correlated with offending, especially for males, was offspring feeling depressed as reported by the mother.

Table 3.

Pearson’s Correlations Between the 11 Depressive Symptom Measures and Eight Forms of Offending by Male and Female Offspring.

		Offspring self-reported offending through age 18
Depression measures	Gender of offspring	Serious violence	Minor violence	Vehicle theft	Theft in general	Vandalism	Illegal entry	Illegal drugs	Illegal commerce
Maternal chronic depression	Male	−.033	.008	.003	−.001	.012	−.014	.032	.078*
Maternal chronic depression	Female	−.006	.002	.031	−.004	.001	.037	.025	.030
Maternal general depression	Male	−.029	−.022	−.014	−.005	−.014	−.002	−.003	.025
Maternal general depression	Female	−.008	.005	−.004	−.011	.008	.007	.045****	.037***
Maternal manic depression	Male	−.006	.004	−.004	.019	.000	−.001	−.008	−.006
Maternal manic depression	Female	−.002	.007	−.003	.010	−.004	.030**	.036***	.022
Postpartum depression with this offspring	Male	.018	.010	.075***	.064**	.050*	.039	.027	.093****
Postpartum depression with this offspring	Female	.028	.007	.018	.044**	.044**	.014	.019	.056***
Paternal general depression	Male	−.003	−.013	−.007	.000	.003	−.003	.008	−.013
Paternal general depression	Female	−.018	−.009	.000	−.006	.017	−.009	.020	.033**
Paternal manic depression	Male	.015	.018	.002	−.005	−.003	−.008	.004	−.011
Paternal manic depression	Female	−.005	−.011	.000	.002	.013	.001	.027*	.018
Offspring general depression (mother report)	Male	.000	.006	−.008	.017	.000	−.008	.022	.016
Offspring general depression (mother report)	Female	−.006	.007	−.007	.002	.006	−.003	.069****	.049****
Offspring manic depression (mother report)	Male	−.005	.000	−.005	−.009	−.008	−.005	.000	−.001
Offspring manic depression (mother report)	Female	−.003	−.007	−.002	.017	.002	.024*	.043****	.021
Offspring feeling depressed (self-report)	Male	−.007	.045**	−.012	.026	.022	.038*	.063****	.066****
Offspring feeling depressed (self-report)	Female	.020	.041****	.014	.073****	.055****	.033***	.069****	.043***
Offspring general depression (self-report)	Male	.021	.046**	.006	.048***	.049***	.048***	.122****	.076****
Offspring general depression (self-report)	Female	.036***	.061****	.016	.094****	.070****	.033***	.147****	.093****
Offspring manic depression (self-report)	Male	.073****	.076****	.038**	.053****	.068****	.068****	.136****	.105****
Offspring manic depression (self-report)	Female	.033**	.037****	.020	.096****	.081****	.036***	.099****	.085****

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .005. ****p < .001, two-tailed test.

Regarding depression reported by the mother, the following five conclusions seem warranted based on Table 3:

Self-reported maternal general depression is positively correlated with illegal drug possession and illegal commerce by female offspring (but not to any type of offending by male offspring).

Self-reported maternal manic depression is positively associated with illegal entry and illegal drug possession, but only by female offspring.

Self-reported postpartum depression is positively correlated with theft in general, vandalism, and illegal commerce for both males and females with vehicle theft by males only.

Maternal-reported offspring general depression was positively correlated with illegal drug possession and illegal commerce by female offspring only.

Mother-reported offspring manic depression was associated with illegal drug possession and illegal entry by female offspring only.

The findings presented in Tables 2 and 3 address this study’s central question: Is the association between offspring depression and offspring delinquency promoted by depression among one or both parents? Evidence bearing on this issue will now be considered.

OLS Analyses

The classic mediation test described by Baron and Kenny (1986) was used to assess the degree to which any relationships between parental depression and offspring delinquency could be simply the result of offspring depression. Three regression models were posed: Model 1—Parental depression predicts offspring depression. Model 2—Parental depression predicts offspring delinquency. Model 3—Parental depression leads to offspring depression, which in turn predicts offspring delinquency. We investigated these three models for general depression and manic depression separately.

To simplify the analysis, the delinquency items in this regression analysis were summed to create a variable of total illegal acts as reported by each offspring regardless of how many times they may have committed each individual act. Scores for this variable ranged from 0 to 8, with the latter indicating that all of the offense categories were violated at least once. This created variable is termed offense diversity. Analyses revealed that this measure was normally distributed, so OLS regression was used to estimate the multivariate models.

Tables 4 and 5 display the OLS coefficients of the mediation analysis for general depression separately for male and female offspring. The pictures provided in both tables are similar. According to Model 1, both maternal and paternal general depression are substantial predictors of general depression among their offspring. Regarding effects upon delinquency, Model 2 shows that offending by offspring increases slightly as a result of maternal general depression but is not significantly related to the father’s level of general depression. As shown in Model 3, both maternal and paternal general depression are no longer significant predictors of offspring delinquency once general depression among the offspring is included in the prediction equation. This suggests that general depression among both parents is not directly causing offspring delinquency, even though such depression (especially that of the mother) does contribute to general depression among offspring.

Table 4.

Analysis of Parental and Offspring General Depression as Mediators, OLS Coefficients, Male Sample.

Predictors	Offspring depression (Model 1)		Offspring delinquency (Model 2)		Offspring delinquency (Model 3)
Predictors	B	β	B	β	B	β
Maternal depression	0.608*** (0.249)	.043	0.100*** (0.022)	.075	0.009 (0.021)	.007
Paternal depression	0.966** (0.356)	.036	0.078* (0.032)	.040	0.013 (0.031)	.007
Offspring depression	—		—		0.007*** (0.001)	.098
Constant	13.211*** (0.383)		3.750*** (0.037)		3.254*** (0.049)
R ²	.005		.009		.010

Note. Standard errors in parentheses. OLS = ordinary least squares.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001, two-tailed test.

Table 5.

Analysis of Parental and Offspring General Depression as Mediators, OLS Coefficients, Female Sample.

Predictors	Offspring depression (Model 1)		Offspring delinquency (Model 2)		Offspring delinquency (Model 3)
Predictors	B	β	B	β	B	β
Maternal depression	1.039*** (0.188)	.067	0.066*** (0.015)	.053	0.020 (0.013)	.019
Paternal depression	0.643** (0.253)	.031	0.074*** (0.019)	.045	0.004 (0.017)	.002
Offspring depression	—		—		0.008*** (0.001)	.128
Constant	15.392*** (0.294)		2.494*** (0.023)		2.011*** (0.033)
R ²	.007		.006		.017

Note. Standard errors in parentheses. OLS = ordinary least squares.

p < .01. ***p < .001, two-tailed test.

Turning to manic-depressive symptoms, Tables 6 and 7 present a somewhat different picture for males and females. According to Model 1, the probability of offspring manic-depressive symptoms is enhanced by manic-depressive symptoms in both parents for males but only for the fathers of females. Model 2 indicates that for both male and female offspring, maternal and paternal manic-depressive symptoms predict offspring delinquency. By adding offspring manic-depressive symptoms to Model 3, the strengths of the maternal coefficient observed were no longer significant for both sexes. However, the paternal coefficient was significant for female offspring, albeit minimally.

Table 6.

Analysis of Parental and Offspring Manic Depression as Mediators, OLS Coefficients, Male Sample.

Predictors	Offspring manic depression (Model 1)		Offspring delinquency (Model 2)		Offspring delinquency (Model 3)
Predictors	B	β	B	β	B	β
Maternal manic depression	1.223* (0.729)	.028	0.212* (0.082)	.040	0.100 (0.084)	.020
Paternal manic depression	1.004* (0.492)	.034	0.128* (0.059)	.034	0.057 (0.057)	.017
Offspring manic depression	—		—		0.015*** (0.002)	.126
Constant	6.271*** (0.285)		3.809*** (0.035)		3.418*** (0.035)
R ²	.002		.003		.017

Note. Standard errors in parentheses. OLS = ordinary least squares.

p < .05. ***p < .001, two-tailed test.

Table 7.

Analysis of Parental and Offspring Manic Depression as Mediators, OLS Coefficients, Female Sample.

Predictors	Offspring manic depression (Model 1)		Offspring delinquency (Model 2)		Offspring delinquency (Model 3)
Predictors	B	β	B	β	B	β
Maternal manic depression	0.391 (0.425)	.011	0.126* (0.050)	.028	0.056 (0.046)	.014
Paternal manic depression	1.066** (0.345)	.036	0.100* (0.041)	.027	0.067* (0.037)	.021
Offspring manic depression	—		—		0.015*** (0.001)	.137
Constant	5.292*** (0.183)		2.540*** (0.022)		2.236*** (0.021)
R ²	.001		.002		.020

Note. Standard errors in parentheses. OLS = ordinary least squares.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001, two-tailed test.

Put in causal terms, the findings for the male sample indicate that the significant effect of maternal and paternal manic depression on offspring delinquency is fully mediated by offspring manic depression. By contrast, the results for the female sample indicate that offspring manic depression does not explain at all the significant link between maternal manic depression and offspring delinquency, and it only partially mediates the influence of paternal manic depression on offspring delinquency.

Discussion

This study had three objectives: First, it sought to confirm that depressive symptoms and involvement in delinquency are positively correlated. Second, we wanted to determine which type of depression and types of delinquency are most inter-correlated. A third goal was to explore the possibility of intergenerational transmission of both self-reported general and manic depression, and how such transmission might be related to offspring delinquency.

Data were based on more than 6,000 mother–offspring matched questionnaires contacted through 20 U.S. and two Canadian colleges. Both the mother’s and the offspring’s questionnaires contained a variety of questions about depressive symptoms, and the offspring’s questionnaire also included an extensive inventory of delinquency items.

Findings were consistent with previous evidence that depressive symptoms and offending are positively correlated with each other (reviewed by Ellis et al., 2009). This study examined the two main forms of depressive symptoms separately. Doing so revealed that manic (bipolar) depressive symptoms were more strongly associated with an individual’s involvement in delinquency than were general (unipolar) depressive symptoms, although the differences were not great.

Empirical support was found for the hypothesis that the more severe an individual’s depressive symptoms (in terms of both general and manic-depressive symptoms), the more involved in delinquency he or she was likely to be. Besides delinquency being linked to depressive symptoms among the offspring, to a lesser degree, delinquency was positively associated with parental depressive symptoms, especially by the mother. The forms of maternal depression that were most associated with offspring delinquency were general depression, manic depression, and postpartum depression.

While many studies have documented an association between depression and offending, to our knowledge, this is the first study to examine both general and manic-depressive symptoms in regard to delinquency involvement. In this regard, manic-depressive symptoms were shown to be more strongly associated with offending in terms of statistical strength. However, because general depression is a more common condition than manic depression (Angst et al., 2011; Kessler et al., 2003), general depression was associated with delinquency more in numerical terms.

To explore the possibility that parental depression might be somehow setting the stage for depression and/or delinquency among offspring, OLS regression was used. This revealed that if either parent had symptoms of either general or manic depression, the offspring also reported similar symptomatology (Model 1), thus confirming the intergenerational nature of these symptoms (Goodman et al., 2011; Hammen et al., 2004). Nevertheless, the cross-sectional nature of our data set means that we cannot dismiss the possibility that the causal order of our regression models is essentially the opposite of what we assumed. In other words, it is possible that offspring depression and/or offspring delinquency cause parents (especially mothers) to be depressed.

As a new element in the relationship between depression and delinquency among offspring, we also explored how parental depressive symptoms might be contributing to both offspring tendencies. In this regard, our modeling suggested that if the mother had symptoms of either general depression or manic depression and the father exhibited manic depression symptoms, their offspring had an elevated risk of delinquency (Model 2). Again, however, because our data are cross-sectional in nature, we cannot be certain of the causal ordering of the variables.

Finally, our study suggests that when parental depressive symptoms and offspring depressive symptoms are included together, only the general depression symptoms reported by the offspring were associated with their involvement in delinquency. However, for manic depression, symptoms of both parents as well as those experienced by the offspring all were significantly associated with offspring delinquency. Overall, this exploratory study indicates that depressive symptoms among parents as well as those experienced by offspring are positively associated with offspring involvement in delinquency. Manic depression appears to be more important in this regard than general depression.

Limitations

This study has a number of notable limitations. Among them are the following: First, all the data utilized were obtained from anonymous questionnaires. This means that there was no clinical verification of self-rated depressive symptoms or official verification of involvement in delinquency.

Second, a convenience sample of U.S. and Canadian college students and their mothers was utilized. Even if fairly similar to English-speaking North American college students in general, our sample cannot be considered representative of U.S. and Canadian citizens in general.

Third, Table 2 clearly reveals stronger correlations between mothers’ own depressive symptoms and offspring delinquency than between depressive symptoms by fathers and offspring delinquency. This needs to be interpreted cautiously as our measures of parental depression were all reported by the mothers. It is reasonable to believe that a mother would be more aware of her own feelings of depression than being aware of such feelings by the offspring’s father.

In conclusion, depressive symptoms and delinquency are positively correlated. To a considerable extent, this is even true across generations, although the extent of the relationships is probably too small to be of any therapeutic significance. Nevertheless, the intergenerational nature of the observed patterns could help provide insight into the causes of the interconnections between familiar depression and delinquency by offspring.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

Gratitude is extended to the students and their mothers who so kindly provided information for this study. The data were collected when the first author was a professor at Minot State University, Minot, North Dakota.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Grants from Minot State University, Minot, ND, and from the Eugene Garfield Foundation, Philidelphia, PA partially funded the collection, compilation, and analysis of the data.

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