Parental mental health

The parent’s own mental health is an important part of the family context in which

the child is growing and developing; potentially impacting the parent’s ability to

respond effectively to the child’s needs, as well as other dynamics within the

household (e.g. Knitzer et al. 2008). Items and scales relating to the parent’s mental

health and well-being should be collected separately from both parents – where

relevant – and be included in the self-complete module.

The parent’s current experience of depressive symptoms has been measured by a

scale called the CES-D (8) in all previous waves of Growing Up in Ireland – including

Cohort 24 at 9 months and Cohort 08 at 3 years. However, depressive symptoms are

not the same as a diagnosis and so some questions on history of treatment for

depression, anxiety or other mental health issue are required. These also featured

on previous waves of Growing Up in Ireland.

The other potential sets of scale items relate to parental stress and a more positively

worded well-being index, which are outlined in more detail below. Cohort 08 at 3

included a single question which asked the parent about their feelings of self-efficacy

as a parent (on a five-point scale from ‘not very good as a parent’ to ‘a very good

parent’). Even though this item was not used with Cohort 24 at 9 months, it may be a

useful snapshot of how well the parent feels they are coping with the parental role

and would allow for a cross-cohort comparison with Cohort 08.

Centre for Epidemiological Studies -Depression scale (CES-D 8)