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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 7/2012

01-07-2012 | Original Paper

The association between depression and parental ethnic affiliation and socioeconomic status: a 27-year longitudinal US community study

Authors: Sophie D. Walsh, Stephen Z. Levine, Itzhak Levav

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 7/2012

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Abstract

Purpose

This study examined the extent to which parental SES and ethnic affiliation during adolescence are associated with Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) scores compatible with depression during adulthood.

Methods

The data were extracted from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) conducted in 1979 on several ethnic groups (African-Americans, Hispanics and Others). These data included paternal socio-economic status (SES) when respondents (N = 8,331) were on average aged 18. The CES-D was re-administered 27 years later to assess the presence of depression.

Results

Adjusted for age, binary logistic regression modeling showed that parental low SES increased the risk of CES-D of scores compatible with depression across ethnic groups for both genders. A gradient was observed of an increased likelihood of depression scores with lower parental SES levels: among African-American respondents, depression scores were highest at the lowest parental SES levels (OR = 3.25, 95% CI 2.19–4.84) and the risk dropped at medium (OR = 3.00, 95% CI 1.96–4.59), and highest SES levels (OR = 1.85, 95% CI 1.12–3.07). An analogous pattern was generally found for each ethnic group.

Conclusions

Low parental SES during adolescence significantly increases the likelihood of CES-D scores compatible with depression during adulthood across US ethnic groups and in both genders.
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Metadata
Title
The association between depression and parental ethnic affiliation and socioeconomic status: a 27-year longitudinal US community study
Authors
Sophie D. Walsh
Stephen Z. Levine
Itzhak Levav
Publication date
01-07-2012
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 7/2012
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-011-0424-2

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