Impact of dysfunctional parenting, affective temperaments, and stressful life events on the development of melancholic and non-melancholic depression: A path analysis study

Yu Tamada; Takeshi Inoue; Atsushi Sekine; Hiroyuki Toda; Minoru Takeshima; Masaaki Sasaki; Yota Fujimura; Susumu Ohmae

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0294070

Impact of dysfunctional parenting, affective temperaments, and stressful life events on the development of melancholic and non-melancholic depression: A path analysis study

PLoS One. 2023 Nov 6;18(11):e0294070. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294070. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yu Tamada^{1

2}, Takeshi Inoue³, Atsushi Sekine⁴, Hiroyuki Toda⁵, Minoru Takeshima^{3

6}, Masaaki Sasaki⁷, Yota Fujimura¹, Susumu Ohmae²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, Tokyo Medical University Hachioji Medical Center, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan.
² Department of Psychiatry, Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ The Medical Foundation of Keishin-Kai, Kyouwa Hospital, Daisen, Akita, Japan.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan.
⁶ Shibata Hospital, Takaoka, Toyama, Japan.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry, Toranomon Hospital Kajigaya, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan.

Abstract

Background: The influence of psychosocial factors on differentiating between melancholic depression (MEL) and non-melancholic depression (NMEL) remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the interrelationship between dysfunctional parenting, personality traits, stressful life events, and the diagnosis of MEL and NMEL among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Methods: Ninety-eight patients with MDD completed the following self-administered questionnaires: the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) for dysfunctional parenting, the short version of the Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego-autoquestionnaire version (TEMPS-A) for affective temperaments, and the Life Experiences Survey (LES) for stressful life events. The data were analyzed using single and multiple regression analyses and path analysis.

Results: Dysfunctional parenting did not have a significant direct effect on MEL. However, paternal care had a significant indirect effect on MEL through depressive temperament. The total indirect effect of paternal care on MEL was significant (indirect path coefficient = 0.161, p <0.05). In other words, low levels of paternal care were associated with the development of NMEL via increased depressive temperament. None of the paths from paternal care to MEL via negative change scores of the LES were significant.

Limitations: This study used cross-sectional data, so the possibility that current depressive status may affect the assessment of LES and TEMPS-A cannot be ruled out.

Conclusions: We found that low levels of paternal care did not directly affect the development of NMEL, but affected the development of NMEL through the mediation of depressive temperament rather than stressful life events.

Copyright: © 2023 Tamada et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression* / psychology
Depressive Disorder, Major* / psychology
Humans
Parenting
Personality Inventory
Surveys and Questionnaires
Temperament

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI grant no.: JP19K14435) to YT; and grants from the Okinaka Memorial Institute for Medical Research to YT. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.