This Month's Featured eJournal Article:

Title: Parental Commuting and Symptoms of Teen Depression

Author: Gregory E. Hamlin, PhD

Excerpt:

" This exploratory study examines the relationship between the time it takes for parents to drive to and from work and how their young adolescent offspring perceive the world. Specifically, the perceptions of 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade students are examined for an overall theme or ‘hue’ of negative mood. The level of depressed affect is quantified by the score of a standard child depression measure which indicated the adolescent’s overall perception of his or her world in terms of symptoms of depression. The original intent of this investigation was to explore the relationship between parent commute time and the level of depression displayed in their young adolescent’s perceptions of the world. Because the population sample showed a limited range of depression levels, the focus of analysis was on the depressive symptoms of the adolescents in relation to the commute time of their parents. Additionally, the quality of adolescent friendships was explored for relevance to depressive symptoms."

Abstract

The empirical literature concerned with commuting stress thus far has neglected to focus on the emotional adjustment of the children of commuting parents who work at full-time jobs. The purpose of this correlational, exploratory study was to examine the relationship between parental commute variables and the symptoms of depression endorsed by their young adolescent children. Specifically, this study examined 146 families as to how the roundtrip commute time of parents related to the scores of young adolescents who completed the Children’s Depression Inventory. Related commuting variables were also examined as were adolescent scores on the Friendship Quality Scale. Participants were recruited from public Middle Schools, Junior High Schools, and Elementary Schools located in suburban areas of greater Los Angeles. One parent per family completed a paper and pencil questionnaire assessing the commuting characteristics of each parent in the home as well as demographic characteristics. Their children (one 6th, 7th, or 8th grade student from each family) completed the Children’s Depression Inventory and the Friendship Quality Scale. It was hypothesized that longer commute times would be associated with a greater number and severity of symptoms of depression endorsed by the adolescents sampled. Findings revealed that commute time to and from parents’ present employment was not associated with Children’s Depression Inventory scores. However, there was an inverse relationship between the commute time to and from the previous jobs of parent respondents’ and the number and severity of symptoms endorsed by their children. By contrast, the present commute time of the spouses of parent respondents was associated with higher scores on the Children’s Depression Inventory. The relationship between Children’s Depression Inventory scores and other variables was examined under the rubric of “compensating resources:” friendship quality, family income, participation in organized sports, and residence in a two-parent household. Of these, only family income was found to be associated with lower depression scores. A post hoc logistic regression analysis resulted in a prediction model which correctly classified 85% of the students as having depressive symptoms which were “present” or “negligible” by using four variables: (1) minutes of previous job commute; (2) Friendship Quality Scale score; (3) child gender; and (4) spouse total commute time. The results of the study suggest the importance of examining child correlates in relationship to parental commuting behavior.

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