Childhood Parental Loss and Adult Psychopathology in Women A Twin Study Perspective

Abstract


We examine the relationship between parental loss prior to age 17 years and adult psychopathology in 1018 pairs of female twins from a population-based registry. The relationship between loss and adult psychopathology varied as a function of the kind of loss (death vs separation), the parent involved, and the form of psychopathology. Increased risk for major depression and generalized anxiety disorder was associated with parental separation but not parental death and with separation from either mother or father. Panic disorder was associated with parental death and maternal, but not paternal, separation. Increased risk for phobia was associated with parental death and not parental separation. Risk for eating disorder was unrelated to the experience of parental loss. A model that includes parental loss as a form of "specified" family environment shows that, if it is truly an environmental risk factor for adult psychopatholgic conditions, it can account for between 1.5% and 5.1% of the total variance in liability to these disorders and is responsible for between 7.0% and 20.5% of the tendency for these disorders to aggregate in siblings.



Other articles

Prevalence and predictors of depression among orphans in Dakahlia’s orphanages, Egypt

Background: Children entering foster care have a higher prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms than children…

Read more

Assessing the health status of young AIDS and other orphans in Kampala, Uganda

The huge number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) orphans is an important…

Read more

Child work and labour among orphaned and abandoned children in five low and middle income countries

Background: The care and protection of the estimated 143,000,000 orphaned and abandoned children (OAC) worldwide is of great…

Read more

Early malnutrition and “late” adoption: a study of their effects on the development of Korean orphans adopted into American families

The purpose of this study is to look at the effects of early malnutrition and “late” adoption on physical and mental development.…

Read more