In past decades, a big number of research (e.g., Hanington et al., 2012; Reupert & Maybery, 2016; Vrolijk et al., 2023; Yamamoto & Keogh, 2018; Yang & Williams, 2021) related to both maternal and paternal depressive symptoms have been applied to examine their associations with not only child factors (child behavior, child development, child wellbeing etc.,) but also many other family functions (marital conflict, parenting practices, parenting self-efficacy etc.,). Likewise, child behavior, mainly behavior problems have been widely studied to broaden understanding of the related influence and interventions (Guajardo et al., 2009; Linville et al., 2010; Tømmerås et al., 2018). However, positive aspects, for example, to what extent child prosocial and parental wellbeing are associated with each other, have not gained enough attention (Gross et al., 2008; Putnick et al., 2018). Besides, there are rather a few studies examining the reciprocal associations between child behavior and parental wellbeing, compared with much previous unidirectional research (Davis & Qi, 2022); let alone extensive studies in investigating longitudinal effects between child behavior and both parents’ mental health systematically in the family context (Gross et al., 2008).

In previous literature, the family has been widely believed as a crucial context in promoting both children and parents’ inclusive wellbeing. Because factors of family members in the family context, such as child behavior, child development, child wellbeing, parental competence, and parental wellbeing etc., are intertwined with each other intensively. (Blair et al., 2014; Berryhill, 2016; Bodenmann et al., 2008; Farmer & Lee, 2011; MacKinnon et al., 2018; Turner et al., 1987). In particular, many family system theorists (Beavers & Hampson, 2000; Bowen, 1966; Bronfenbrenner, 1977, 1979; Cox & Paley, 1997,2003) suggested that the family should be studied as systems to better understanding family function like family members’ development, wellbeing, and relationships. Extending the previous literature, we examine longitudinal associations between parental depressive symptoms and child behavior at three timepoints across pre-school age (4 and 6 years old) to school age (9-years-old) including both maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems (both externalizing and internalizing behaviors) and adaptive skills. In addition, we add an important methodological advancement, the usage of RI-CLPM model which distinguish between- and within- person variances to provide accurate results and correct interpretation of the correlations across age.

The aims of the current study were twofold:
1. Are the development of child’s behavior (externalizing behavior, internalizing behavior and adaptive skills) and parental depressive symptoms associated at the between-person level? That is, do parents with higher depressive symptoms also have children with more behavior problems/less adaptive behavior and vice versa?

2. Do child’s behavior (externalizing behavior, internalizing behavior and adaptive skills) and parental depressive symptoms predict one another at the within-person level? That is, do increased parental depressive symptoms at the subsequent time point predict increased behavior problems/less adaptive behavior and vice versa?

Hopefully, our multi-group, multi-level, and multi-time spots models may provide a better understanding of family dynamics, contextual influences, and bring together researchers, practitioners, policymakers to discuss some broader implications of possible intervention and prevention at various levels to support both child and parental well-being.

The participants (n= 200; 106 boys, 94 girls) were followed from birth in the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (JLD) (Lohvansuu et al., 2021). The current analyses included data from children at age 4, 6 and 9. With the help of maternity clinics throughout the Central Finland, participating parents had taken skills test for the parental diagnosis in terms of reading, spelling, and vocabulary related cognition by paper and pencil at the university before the child’s birth. Half of the families with one or both parents diagnosed as dyslexia were set as at-risk for dyslexia group, and the other half belonged to the control group (Leinonen et al., 2001). All families were native Finnish speaking Caucasian. In addition, there were no significant differences in general mental, physical, or sensory assessments between all children when they were born. A Finnish translation (Parhiala et al., 2015) of Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992) reported by parents was used to measure child behavior when the children were 4, 6 and 9 years old. Whilst, A Finnish translation (Aro et al., 2009) of the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961) was applied to measure parental depressive symptoms. Firstly, distributions of variables were examined by and Pearson correlations between child behavior and parental depressive symptoms were calculated using IBM SPSS Statistics 28 program. In order to handle measurement error, latent factors were used in further analysis. Each variable at each time point was divided to be three sub sums based on factor loadings to create the latent factor. Then the Mplus statistical package (version 8.10) was used to carry out the further Structural Equation Models modeling. To answer the research questions, random intercept cross-lagged models (RI-CLPM) were utilized (ref) to test autoregression and cross-lagged effects when the variation between individual levels (random intercepts) are controlled. Factorial invariance holds between control and comparison groups were tested as the first step in this research. Four models with full information maximum likelihood increasing hierarchically the invariance constraints were estimated. Second step is to test if groups covariance structure is equal between groups. Bayes method was utilized in estimation because model complexity increases considerably. At last, random intercept cross-lagged models were used to test autoregression and cross-lagged effect when the variation between individual levels (random intercepts) are controlled.

Despite the increase trend in research examining not only unidirectional, reciprocal associations but also transitional mechanism between child behavior and parental wellbeing including parents’ stress, depressive symptoms etc., Nevertheless, few studies have considered family as a whole in promoting family wellbeing. Also, there are contradictory findings regarding how parents and children influence each other in different study circumstance like dataset from different countries. Hence, the current research examined the longitudinal associations between child’s behavior (externalizing, internalizing behavior and adaptive skills) and parental (both fathers and mothers) depressive symptoms systematically extended from family system theories in the Finnish context to broaden the understanding of family function under different national and social system. The results showed that there are significant between – person correlations between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing behavior, between maternal depressive symptoms and child adaptive skills, and between paternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing behavior. That is, a father or mother with higher depressive symptoms also have children with more internalizing behavior and vice versa, whilst a mother with higher depressive symptoms has children with less adaptive skills and vice versa. No significant within- person cross-lagged associations were found which indicated that increased parental depressive symptoms at the subsequent time point do not predict increased behavior problems/less adaptive behavior and vice versa. The findings thus suggested that besides mothers’ perspective and child behavior problems, other essential aspects such as fathers’ perspective, child positive adjustment, child-driven effects, positive effects on each other among family members, between- and within- person effects should also be considered into future investigations from a family system perspective in understanding family functioning and potentially promoting family well-being.

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