The effects of parental relationships, and gender and grade differences on depressive disorder in Chinese adolescents: the evidence from multiple cross-sectional surveys (1999–2016)

This study aims to investigate the impacts of parental relationships, gender, and grade differences on depressive disorder among Chinese adolescents over a time period of nearly 20 years. The first survey took place in 1999 and involved 852 students; subsequent follow-up surveys took place in 2006, 2009 and 2016, with 3345 students involved in total. Depressive disorder was measured by SCL - 90 - R (Chinese version) . The surveys also collected social-demographic information about the respondents. Three indicators of parental relationships were examined—parental quarrels, parental disharmony and parental divorce. The results show that gender was significantly associated with adolescents’ depressive disorder and that there was a higher prevalence of depressive disorder among senior middle school students than among junior middle school students, except in 1999. Troubled parental relationships were associated with high risks of depressive disorder. Coefficients and 95% CI were adjusted for the survey years (1999, 2006, 2009, 2016), school grades (junior or senior middle school students), gender (girls/boys), parental quarrels (yes/no), parental disharmony (yes/no), and parental divorce (yes/no). Logistic regression indicated that parental divorce and gender were the two strongest predictors of the presence of depressive disorder. In summary, there was a higher prevalence of depressive disorder among girls and senior middle school students. Adolescents are vulnerable to depressive disorder in cases of parental divorce. Therefore, good parental relationships may be considered an important and necessary factor that affects the susceptibility of Chinese adolescents to depressive disorder.