Depression is one of the most common mental health issues in the world. About 280 million people globally have depression. According to the World Health Organization, about 3.8% of the world’s population is affected by depression. Several factors, including poverty, chronic physical illness, social isolation, and a history or family history of depression, are known to be associated with increased risks for developing depression. Non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatment options are available to treat depression effectively.
Family and loved ones play salient roles in a person’s depression outcomes. Negative family life is known to increase a person’s risk for developing depression and for treatment failure. For example, people with a traumatic family life (e.g., abuse and neglect) experience depression at a significantly higher rate than those who did not. Moreover, their depressive symptoms are more severe and harder to treat. Divorce and death of a loved one can trigger depression or may deepen existing depressive symptoms. For divorce cases, you may need the help of your family law divorce attorney to help you go through the process. Positive family life is known to increase our sense of overall well-being, improve adherence to treatment regimens, and reduce the likelihood of recurrence of depression after a successful treatment.
What I have said in the previous sections should not surprise anyone. However, I learned that the intersection between depression and family life is not as simple as it seems, especially when we consider gender and culture. Family life is gendered and culturally grounded. Expectations around family roles and functions greatly differ across genders and diverse cultural groups. Therefore, how family life may impact an individual’s emotional health may also differ by gender and culture. In a study using a representative U.S. older adult sample, I found that older men receive much greater benefit from cohesive family life than older women. In other words, reporting better family cohesion significantly reduced the likelihood of having depression in older men but not older woman. Similarly, older men were impacted by family conflict in a much greater magnitude than older woman. Older men who reported greater conflict within the family experienced a higher risk for depression, but older women did not. In the same study, we compared how family life impacts the rates of depression in Asian and Latino older adults. While Asian older adults appeared more sensitive to family conflict, Latino older adults were more sensitive to family cohesion. Qualitatively and clinically, I see a nuanced interplay between gender, culture, and family life when working with individuals with depression.
Existing research studies on depression have treated gender, culture, and family life as separate factors. I argue that we need to consider these factors as more synergistic and interlocking elements of a contextual system when we study depression and individuals with depression.
Dr. Mijung Park is Associate Professor at the University of California, San Francisco and a founding member of IFNA. Dr. Park’s research on family focuses on the complex roles families play in persons’ ability to manage emotional and physical health optimally.
