A three generation study of the mental health relationships between grandparents, parents and children

BMC Psychiatry

Table 5 Results from multivariate linear regression models estimating child SDQ scores, by child cohort

	B cohort (4–5 years, n = 2081)				K cohort (8–9 years, n = 1988)				Total (n = 4069)
Predictor	B	SE	p-value	95% CI	B	SE	p-value	95% CI	B	SE	p-value	95% CI
Intercept	8.89	0.58	<.001	7.75–10.03	11.00	0.76	<.001	9.51–12.49	9.83	0.50	<.001	8.84–10.83
Parent mental health status
Mother has MH problem	1.82	0.43	<.001	0.99–2.66	2.02	0.37	<.001	1.29–2.76	1.91	0.29	<.001	1.34–2.48
Father has MH problem	0.56	0.40	.169	-0.23–1.35	1.30	0.48	.007	0.35–2.25	0.94	0.33	.005	0.29–1.58
Mother x Father MH problem	2.41	0.98	.014	0.49–4.34	0.51	0.92	.577	-1.30–2.33	1.23	0.67	.067	-0.09–2.54
Grandparent mental health history
Maternal grandmother has MH history	0.36	0.24	.126	-0.10–0.83	0.45	0.23	.048	0.01–0.90	0.41	0.17	.016	0.08–0.74
Maternal grandfather has MH history	0.31	0.28	.263	-0.23–0.85	0.62	0.30	.037	0.04–1.21	0.49	0.20	.015	0.10–0.89
Paternal grandmother has MH history	-0.13	0.21	.526	-0.55–0.28	0.46	0.28	.098	-0.09–1.01	0.21	0.18	.237	-0.14–0.56
Paternal grandfather has MH history	0.64	0.33	.049	0.01–1.28	0.12	0.33	.717	-0.53–0.77	0.36	0.27	.112	-0.09–0.81
Contact with maternal grandparents
Infrequent vs no contact or none	0.55	0.41	.179	-0.26–1.36	-0.42	0.49	.391	-1.39–0.54	0.09	0.34	.794	-0.58–0.76
Frequent vs no contact or none	0.20	0.42	.625	-0.62–1.03	0.00	0.50	.997	-0.97–0.98	0.18	0.34	.604	-0.49–0.84
Contact with paternal grandparents
Infrequent vs no contact or none	0.64	0.32	.045	0.02–1.28	0.73	0.37	.048	0.01–1.45	0.71	0.25	.005	0.21–1.20
Frequent vs no contact or none	0.47	0.31	.128	-0.14–1.07	0.35	0.33	.289	-0.30–1.01	0.49	0.24	.039	0.24–1.20

MH = Mental Health. Infrequent contact includes “rarely” and “a few times a year”. Frequent contact includes “at least every month”, “at least every week” and “every day”. Model adjusts for family structure, socio-economic position, mother’s age at birth of first child, presence of medical condition lasting 6 months or more in child, at least one parent has an ongoing medical condition and child gender, bold type p < .05. Interactions tested but found to be non-significant: mother has MH problem x maternal grandmother/grandfather has MH history; father has MH problem x paternal grandmother/grandfather has MH history; maternal grandmother/grandfather has MH history x contact with maternal grandparents; paternal grandmother/grandfather has MH history x contact with paternal grandparents.

ISSN: 1471-244X