Family matters : a multisystem investigation of children's subjective well-being

Abstract

This study used panel data to examine the longitudinal effect of maternal and paternal depressiveness on children’s emotional well-being. The main purpose was to examine whether the strength of this association differs depending on whether parents or children themselves assessed child emotional well-being. Based on data on 1,586 children from the German Family Panel (pairfam), our findings show much stronger associations between parental depressiveness and children’s emotional problems when using parent-reported measures of emotional problems than when using child-reported measures, indicating a negative mood bias in parent reports. The findings emphasize the importance of taking children’s self-reports into account when studying child well-being.