teen Parental Depression: Impact on Offspring and Mechanisms Underlying Transmission of Risk

The Impact of Parental Depression on Offspring ...........................................444 Impact of Parental Depression in Infants and Preschool-Aged

Children ................................................................................................... 445 Impact of Parental Depression in School-Age Children and/or

Adolescents .............................................................................................. 448 Impact of Parental Depression in Adolescence ......................................... 450

Mechanisms of Risk ......................................................................................... 451 Family Environments of Children of Depressed Parents .......................... 451 Cognitive Vulnerability in Offspring of Depressed Parents ..................... 453 Biological Risk Factors ................................................................................ 455

Stress Reactivity in Children of Depressed Parents ............................. 455 Neurobiological Functioning ................................................................. 458

Conclusions and Future Directions ................................................................ 459 References ........................................................................................................ 461

Depression is a debilitating disorder with high personal and economic costs. It is estimated that 24% of women and 15% of men will experience clinically signifi cant depression (Kessler et al., 2003). Approximately 80% of these individuals will experience more than one major depressive episode over the course of their lives (Belsher & Costello, 1988; Boland & Keller, 2002). The high prevalence and high recurrence rate of depressive episodes is particularly disconcerting when we take into account that depression not only affects the depressed person, but also has a great impact on the person’s social environment, specifi cally on family members. In fact, it is now accepted that depression is a familial disorder with a signifi cantly increased risk of depression onset in offspring of depressed parents (Goodman, Adamson, Riniti, & Cole, 1994; Weissman et al., 2005). Still, we have little understanding of the impact of parental depression on their offspring, and even less understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the elevated risk of offspring to develop psychiatric disorders themselves.