5. Conclusions
depression, adversity, depressed, impairment in social functioning
EVENTS
The findings presented here must be considered in light of several limitations. First, the data were collected from the early 2000s, nearly twenty years ago, and as such cannot provide insight into how more contemporary concerns—such as social media use [These limitations notwithstanding, the data presented here speak to themes of family, adversity, and developmental trajectories that persist across generations and highlight the importance of attending to the effects of parental depression on offspring’s transition to adulthood in future work. Specifically, more research is needed to better understand the transactions between depressed parents and children when they are no longer living in the same home. In addition, emerging adults are living at home longer at the time of writing compared to at the time of data collection [While parental depression remained a chronic issue, and depression in the young adult children emerged as a new problem in many cases here, many of these children did well. The dimensions of self-understanding, empathy, compassion, and relatedness that many participants exhibited suggest areas to target in future preventive intervention efforts focused on building resiliency in families with parental depression. Through adolescence, offspring of depressed parents have higher rates of depression, other diagnoses, major life events, and impairment in social functioning. As such, it is crucial that we consider the effects of parental depression on youth as they leave adolescence and enter the adult world.