Depression in mothers at childhood: direct and indirect association with problematic gaming in late adolescence/young adulthood

Objectives: Little is known about the relationship between depression in mothers and problematic gaming in their children. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the potential role of mothers’ depression in childhood as a risk factor for problematic gaming in their offspring in late adolescence/young adulthood. Methods: We assessed data from 1557 participants on three waves (T0 collected in 2010/2011, T1 in 2013/2014, and T2 in 2018/2019) of a large Brazilian school-based cohort. Mother's depression at T0 was tested as a predictor of problematic gaming at T2 in a logistic regression model. In mediation analyses, we individually assessed internalizing or externalizing disorders at T1 as mediators in this association, with participants' sex being tested as a moderator in both models. Inverse probability weights were used to account for sample attrition at T2. All models were adjusted for maternal and participant-related covariates. Results: Mother's depression at T0 was significantly associated with problematic gaming at T2 (OR = 2.09, p < 0.001) even after adjusting for multiple confounding factors. The presence of any internalizing disorder at T1 was a partial mediator of this relationship, accounting for 8.18% (p = 0.032) of the total effect, while the presence of any externalizing disorder at T1 was not a significant mediator. Participants' sex was not a significant moderator in mediation models. Conclusions: These findings suggest mother's depression in childhood as a risk factor for problematic gaming in later developmental stages, which may be partially mediated by internalizing psychopathology.