Within-Person Longitudinal Associations Between Parental Depressive Symptoms and Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Functioning: Differences by Household Income

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Parental depressive symptoms are consistently associated with children’s emotional and behavioral functioning, yet research has predominantly emphasized parent-to-child associations. Less is known about child-to-parent pathways and reciprocal processes, particularly across socioeconomic contexts. This study examined within-person reciprocal associations between parental depressive symptoms and children’s emotional and behavioral functioning across Grades 3–5 and tested whether these associations differed by household income status. Methods: Data were drawn from 5320 children (Mage = 9.10 years at Grade 3) in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 (ECLS-K:2011), a nationally representative U.S. longitudinal study. Parental depressive symptoms and teacher-rated internalizing and externalizing behaviors were assessed annually. Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) examined within-person reciprocal associations, and multigroup RI-CLPMs tested income-group differences. Results: In the overall sample, parental depressive symptoms did not significantly predict subsequent internalizing or externalizing behaviors, whereas both child behaviors predicted subsequent parental depressive symptoms. Both the parent-to-child and child-to-parent pathways for internalizing behaviors differed significantly by household income status. Among lower-income families, parental depressive symptoms and children’s internalizing behaviors were reciprocally associated, whereas neither direction was significant among relatively higher-income families. In contrast, the cross-lagged associations for externalizing behaviors did not differ by household income status. Conclusions: Within-person reciprocal associations between parental depressive symptoms and children’s internalizing behaviors emerged among lower-income families but not among relatively higher-income families, suggesting that parent–child mental health processes may be more interconnected under socioeconomic disadvantage.