Intergenerational transmission of depression and anxiety – is the effect different for the children of refugees?

Lisa Harber-Aschan , Stockholm University
Siddartha Aradhya, Stockholm University
Elena Pupaza, Stockholm University
Frankseco Yorke, Stockholm University
Ben Wilson, Stockholm University

Children with a parent with depression or anxiety (common mental disorders, CMD) are more likely to have these disorders themselves in adolescence, but the intergenerational transmission of CMDs has not systematically studied across migrant groups. This is especially relevant for refugees, given that the stressors related to refugee parents’ experiences of migration may put them at greater risk of mental illness, while there is also substantial evidence of “resilience” among this group. This study uses linked data from demographic registers, drug prescription registers, and patient registers for the population of Sweden, to address the following research questions: 1) How prevalent is depression and anxiety in adolescent children of refugees (ages 12-17)? 2) What is the association between parental depression/anxiety in childhood (ages 6-11) and depression and anxiety in adolescence (ages 12-17)? 3) Does the association between parental CMD in childhood and CMD in adolescence differ for the children of refugees compared to children with Swedish-born parents and children with non-refugee migrant parents? To examine CMD in adolescence, we focus on individuals born 1999-2005, and capture depression and anxiety over the ages 12-17 (N=428,722, of which n=34,666 were Swedish-born children of refugees (G2 refugees)). We find that children of refugees, have a lower risk of CMDs, but that they are more likely to have a parent with CMD compared to native-born population; and thus that the association between parental CMD and CMD in adolescence is weaker in the G2 refugees.

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 Presented in Session 93. Social Inequalities in Morbidity and Disparities in Mental Health