Joint Trajectories of Parental and Offspring Psychiatric Hospitalizations: A 30-Year Follow-up of Finnish Birth Cohorts 1980–1989

Lauren Bishop , University of Helsinki
Liina Junna, University of Helsinki
Joonas Pitkänen, University of Helsinki
Pekka Martikainen, University of Helsinki

Background: Extensive research suggests a strong association between parental psychopathology and offspring’s poor mental health outcomes. Emerging research suggests that these processes are likely reciprocal, with children’s psychopathology also affecting parental mental health. However, few studies have considered joint trajectories of parental and offspring psychopathology. The current study aims to estimate simultaneous mental health trajectories for parents and their offspring at offspring ages 0–30. Methods: Our study population contains Finnish children born between 1980–1989 and their biological parents. Hospitalization records attributable to psychopathology are derived from the Care Register for Healthcare. We use group-based dual trajectory models to jointly estimate trajectory groups of hospitalization for parents and offspring. We further use multinomial regression to estimate the probabilities associated with group membership as a function of childhood socioeconomic position and consider effect heterogeneity by sex and type of disorder. Expected results: We expect to find trajectories reflecting consistently low, consistently high, and variant psychopathology among parents, and consistently low, early onset, and late onset psychopathology among offspring across follow-up. We further expect trajectory group membership to differ by sex and socioeconomic status and be patterned by disorder type. Finally, we expect the joint trajectories to reveal (dis)continuity in the timing of psychopathology between generations. Such dynamic trajectories will better help to empirically understand the directionality of the effects between parent and offspring psychopathology. Conclusion: We expect that these results will help to disentangle the reciprocal processes between parents and their children that contribute to the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 71. Mental and Cognitive Health