Generational Depression
Epidemiologic evidence also points to the major role of contagion factors in depression. The rate and nature of depression vary dramatically from culture to culture—unlike with schizophrenia, where roughly 1 percent of the population is affected no matter the culture sampled...
There is a near-perfect correlation between a parent's explanatory style and a child's. Every time a child asks, "Why, Mommy?" or "Why, Daddy?" the explanation provided invariably embodies a particular style of thinking and attributions of causality. Each question is a vehicle for the transmission of thinking that interprets events in a way that is congruent with external reality or that reflects more subjective or hyperemotional responses.
"Why didn't Uncle Bob come to the picnic, Mom?" There's a world of difference between "He must be mad at me" and " I don't know, the next time we talk to Uncle Bob let's ask him." There are also the kinds of attributions that reflect a permanently negative perspective: "Mom, I tried to do this and couldn't, would you help me do it?" "No, you'll never be able to do it, it's too hard."
Very interesting to see how although developing depression might be partly genetic, it seems that parenting (and cultivating strong emotional intelligence) has a lot to do in determining if an adult will have depressive tendencies.
Also very interesting to see that depression usually comes on slowly and is first noticed in our 20's. Culturally speaking, in my opinion, it seems that there's a lot in American culture that seems to be a particularly good incubator of depression.
The silver lining in all this is the possibility that awareness and understanding might be able to reverse the increasing rates of depression passed down through generations -- and maybe adults can change their mentality slowly to overcome the severity of their own depression.
