Parents' mental health issues may spoil children's friendships

Parenting styles and a parent's mental health problems, particularly depression, play a role in a child's ability to keep friends in elementary school, suggests a recent study in Finland.

With data on 1,523 Finnish children and their parents, researchers compared mothers' and fathers' parenting styles and depressive symptoms to predict how long friendships formed in the first grade would last, and how quickly friends would fall away.