Examining intergenerational transmission of depression and anxiety: Dysfunctional patterns of stress reactivity and stress recovery in parent-child interactions

• Applicant: Dr. Lena Pfeifer
• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 576091215

This project covers a two-year project at the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Lab (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) hosted by Prof. LeMoult. The project aims at investigating the intergenerational transmission of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Anxiety Disorders (AD) in its stress-related components. This is relevant as 50% of children whose parents exhibit a mental disorder develop psychopathology themselves with dysfunctional parenting being suspected as a key driver. Dysfunctional parenting may foster maladaptive stress responsiveness in children (altered physiological reactivity, poor emotion regulation capacities, cognitive biases). Parents and children (8-12 years) from n=50 high-risk (mentally ill parents with MDD or AD) and n=50 low-risk (healthy parents) families (children do not show diagnostic criteria in both groups) will separately undergo the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; child version for children). Stress reactivity will be quantified by physiological (cortisol, heart rate) and subjective (self-reported affect) markers. I hypothesize that parents with MDD and AD show altered stress reactivity compared to healthy controls, and that children of parents with MDD and AD do so as well before developing clinical symptoms. After the TSST, half of the parent-child dyads will be reunited shortly. This reunion will be video- and audio recorded and analyzed for suboptimal parental (parental negativity and overcontrol). I expect that mentally ill parents show suboptimal parenting more frequently than healthy control parents overall while the relative occurrence of parental negativity and overcontrol may differ between MDD and AD. As a result, altered stress reactivity at the side of the children may be particularly pronounced for children exposed to dysfunctional parenting during reunion. Finally, all parent child dyads will complete a recovery phase separately during which I will continue collecting stress reactivity markers, supplemented by self-reported use of emotional suppression, cognitive reappraisal, and rumination at the side of the child. I assume that children of mentally ill parents who have been reunited post-stressor with their parents show the most dysfunctional recovery from stress. 24h later, I will ask children to report their memories of the testing session and assess (sub)clinical symptoms of MDD and AD. I hypothesize that children of parents with MDD and AD who have been reunited with their mentally ill parents post-stressor display the most pronounced biases in event-related cognition, self-referential schemata, and (sub)clinical symptoms. Compared to sparse existing research, this project applies a stronger stressor and enables diagnosis-overarching analyses. Thus, this research advances our understanding of how stress and parenting mediate the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology, providing insights into early markers of risk and potential intervention targets.

• DFG Programme: Fellowship
• International Connection: Canada
• Host: Professorin Dr. Joelle LeMoult