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Vereecke, Shelby

University of British Columbia

University students are experiencing depressive disorders at an alarming rate. Findings from the literature support that youth exposed to childhood adversity may have worse mental health outcomes than unexposed youth. Particularly, childhood exposure to parents’ severely using substances is common and is one of the strongest predictors for negative mental health outcomes in young adulthood. The current thesis aimed to explore the association between childhood exposure to parental substance use and the risk of depression in university students. First, a literature review was conducted. The study designs, methods, and findings of the literature were presented. A risk bias assessment was performed to evaluate each article described in this thesis. Second, a regression and propensity score matching analysis was performed using survey data from the University of British Columbia, which estimated the association between parental substance use exposure and the prevalence of 12-month major depressive disorder (MDD). An examination of effect modification was conducted by incorporating childhood adversity variables as interaction terms in the analysis. Students exposed to parental substance use were matched to unexposed students using propensity score matching. Standardized mean differences were estimated to check for balance between groups. Odds ratios of 12-month major depressive disorder were calculated before and after matching. The literature review identified eight studies, of which, most found a positive association between parental substance use exposure and increased depression prevalence. Additionally, the University of British Columbia study found that 17.5% of the sample reported childhood exposure to parental substance use. A dose-response relationship was found between the frequency of exposure and the prevalence of 12-month MDD. Using the propensity-score matched sample, a 51% increase in odds of 12-month MDD for the exposed students was observed, adjusting for age, sex, race, parental mental health, and parental education. These findings highlight a need for further research on the impact of childhood adversities on depression outcomes in university settings.

Text

2024-07-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88690

Population and Public Health

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/