Childhood Parental Loss and Adult Psychopathology in Women: A Twin Study Perspective

doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1992.01820020029004

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Vol. 49 No. 2, February 1992

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Childhood Parental Loss and Adult Psychopathology in Women

A Twin Study Perspective

Kenneth S. Kendler, MD; Michael C. Neale, PhD; Ronald C. Kessler, PhD; Andrew C. Heath, DPhil; Lindon J. Eaves, PhD, DSc

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1992;49(2):109-116.

Abstract

• We examine the relationship between parental loss priorto age 17 years and adult psychopathology in 1018 pairs of femaletwins from a population-based registry. The relationship betweenloss and adult psychopathology varied as a function of the kindof loss (death vs separation), the parent involved, and theform of psychopathology. Increased risk for major depressionand generalized anxiety disorder was associated with parentalseparation but not parental death and with separation from eithermother or father. Panic disorder was associated with parentaldeath and maternal, but not paternal, separation. Increasedrisk for phobia was associated with parental death and not parentalseparation. Risk for eating disorder was unrelated to the experienceof parental loss. A model that includes parental loss as a formof "specified" family environment shows that, if it is trulyan environmental risk factor for adult psychopatholgic conditions,it can account for between 1.5% and 5.1% of the total variancein liability to these disorders and is responsible for between7.0% and 20.5% of the tendency for these disorders to aggregatein siblings.

Author Affiliations

From the Departments of Psychiatry (Drs Kendler and Eaves) and Human Genetics (Drs Kendler, Neale, and Eaves), Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va; the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Dr Kessler); and the Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Mo (Dr Heath).

Footnotes

Accepted for publication June 19, 1991.

Reprint requests to Department of Psychiatry, Medical Collegeof Virginia, Box 710, Richmond, VA 23298 (Dr Kendler).

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