Rural Adolescents’ and Caregivers’ Perceptions of Family Functioning: Association with Depression

Purpose: We examined whether divergent views on family functioning among rural adolescents and their caregivers were associated with adolescents’ depression, after controlling for age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Methods: Data were collected in 2015 from 493 adolescents aged 13 - 19 years in grades 8-12 and 410 caregivers who lived in a rural county in the Southeastern United States. We distributed confidential questionnaires to sampled participants who completed them at home. We used a paired sample t-test to examine perceptions of family functioning among adolescents and caregivers. Linear and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine whether different perceptions of family functioning among adolescents and their caregivers were associated with adolescents’ depression, controlling for age, gender and race/ethnicity. Results: Rural adolescents and their caregivers had significantly different perceptions of family functioning. Their divergent views were significantly associated with adolescents’ depression when controlling for age, gender and race/ethnicity. Research Implications: Findings of this study are important for clinical practice in rural areas, which should develop some sustainable surveillance mechanisms and run regular care campaigns to emphasize the importance of early identification of depressive symptoms and their systemic monitoring to improve adolescents’ developmental trajectory and reduce the potential of disruption of adolescent-parent relationships within the family.