{"title":"Assessing the role of parent-child conflict and closeness in children's depression: insights from a meta-analysis.","authors":"Juanjuan Sun, Yuling Yin, Jinghui Zhang, Yan Li","doi":"10.1186/s13034-025-00955-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Depression, as a prevalent public health concern, has long been the focus of research attention. However, the magnitude and moderating mechanisms underlying the association between parent-child relationships and childhood depression remain inconclusive. This study employed a meta-analysis to quantitatively assess the associations between two dimensions of parent-child relationships (closeness and conflict) and depressive symptoms in children across diverse global cultures, while investigating potential moderators through subgroup analyses and meta-regression. After systematic Literature search and screening, 63 studies comprising 97 effect sizes were included, with a total sample of 70,687 participants (mean age 13.3 ± 1.12 years; 51% girls). Main effect analysis revealed significant positive correlations between childhood depression and parent-child conflict (r = 0.25) and significant negative correlations with parent-child closeness (r = - 0.24). Moderator analyses identified cultural context, study design, child age, and publication status as significant moderators of these associations. In contrast, child gender, parental gender, and measurement instruments for depression showed no significant moderating effects. This study confirms that parent-child closeness and conflict respectively serve as crucial protective and risk factors for childhood depression. These findings underscore the importance of fostering positive parent-child relationships in preventive interventions, potentially reducing the incidence of childhood depression through improved family dynamics.</p>","PeriodicalId":9934,"journal":{"name":"Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health","volume":"19 1","pages":"105"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12482039/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-025-00955-9","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PEDIATRICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Depression, as a prevalent public health concern, has long been the focus of research attention. However, the magnitude and moderating mechanisms underlying the association between parent-child relationships and childhood depression remain inconclusive. This study employed a meta-analysis to quantitatively assess the associations between two dimensions of parent-child relationships (closeness and conflict) and depressive symptoms in children across diverse global cultures, while investigating potential moderators through subgroup analyses and meta-regression. After systematic Literature search and screening, 63 studies comprising 97 effect sizes were included, with a total sample of 70,687 participants (mean age 13.3 ± 1.12 years; 51% girls). Main effect analysis revealed significant positive correlations between childhood depression and parent-child conflict (r = 0.25) and significant negative correlations with parent-child closeness (r = - 0.24). Moderator analyses identified cultural context, study design, child age, and publication status as significant moderators of these associations. In contrast, child gender, parental gender, and measurement instruments for depression showed no significant moderating effects. This study confirms that parent-child closeness and conflict respectively serve as crucial protective and risk factors for childhood depression. These findings underscore the importance of fostering positive parent-child relationships in preventive interventions, potentially reducing the incidence of childhood depression through improved family dynamics.
期刊介绍:
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, the official journal of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, is an open access, online journal that provides an international platform for rapid and comprehensive scientific communication on child and adolescent mental health across different cultural backgrounds. CAPMH serves as a scientifically rigorous and broadly open forum for both interdisciplinary and cross-cultural exchange of research information, involving psychiatrists, paediatricians, psychologists, neuroscientists, and allied disciplines. The journal focusses on improving the knowledge base for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of mental health conditions in children and adolescents, and aims to integrate basic science, clinical research and the practical implementation of research findings. In addition, aspects which are still underrepresented in the traditional journals such as neurobiology and neuropsychology of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence are considered.