Mediating effects of parent-child relationship on the association between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms among adolescents.

Abstract Background Depressive symptoms are the most common mental disorder among adolescents, and its prevalence has been increasing in recent years. Although childhood maltreatment is a contributing factor to depressive symptoms among adolescents, the underlying mechanism of how this factor causes depressive symptoms is unclear. Objective This study aimed to investigate the mediating effects of parent-child relationship on the association between childhood maltreatment and depressive symptoms among adolescents and to identify how sex and only child status affect this association. Methods A total of 14,500 middle school students were randomly selected from four cities (Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Nanchang, and Guiyang) in China. A survey questionnaire was administered to collect information on childhood maltreatment, parent-child relationship, and depressive symptoms. Pearson's correlation analysis was used in analyzing the relationship, Bootstrap method was used to test the mediating effects. A moderated mediation analysis has been used to determine the moderated mediation effect. Results Childhood maltreatment significantly negatively correlated with parent-child relationship and positively correlated with depressive symptoms (P  Conclusions Childhood maltreatment increased the risk of depressive symptoms, and this relationship was partially mediated by parent-child relationship, sex and only child status have moderated the indirect relationship. These findings showed efforts aimed at enhancing the parent-child relationship may prevent or reduce the prevalence of depressive symptoms among adolescents, especially in girls and children with siblings.