Examining the association between parenting and childhood depression: A meta-analysis ☆ Bryce D. McLeod a, ⁎ , John R. Weisz b , Jeffrey J. Wood c a Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, United States b Judge Baker Children's Center, Harvard University, United States c Department of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, United States Received 20 December 2006; received in revised form 26 February 2007; accepted 2 March 2007 Abstract Theoretical models posit that parenting plays a causal role in the development and maintenance of child psychological problems, yet meta-analytic findings indicate that parenting accounts for less than 6% of the variance in child externalizing problems and less than 4% of the variance in childhood anxiety. Extending the analysis to childhood depression, we conducted a meta-analysis of 45 studies testing the association between parenting and childhood depression. We found that parenting accounted for 8% of the variance in child depression. Parental rejection was more strongly related to childhood depression than was parental control. Moreover, various subdimensions of parenting were differentially associated with childhood depression, with parental hostility toward the child most strongly related to child depression. Analyses also revealed that methodological factors (i.e., how parenting and child depression was conceptualized and assessed) moderated the parenting–childhood depression association. Inconsistent findings within the literature are partially attributable to variations from study to study in measurement quality. Closer attention to the precise measurement of these two constructs in future studies may lead to a more accurate estimate of the association between parenting and child depression. In all, the modest association between parenting and childhood depression indicates that factors other than parenting may account for the preponderance of variance in childhood depression. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Parenting; Childhood depression; Meta-analysis Contents 1. Method ........................................................ 989 1.1. Selection of studies .............................................. 989 1.1.1. Inclusion/exclusion criteria ...................................... 989 1.1.2. Study sample ............................................. 991 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Clinical Psychology Review 27 (2007) 986 – 1003 ☆ This paper was supported in part by a training grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded to Bryce D. McLeod (National Research Service Award; F31-MH64993) and grants awarded to John R. Weisz from NIMH (R01-MH49522) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Initiative on Youth Mental Health, and Research Network on Youth Mental Health). ⁎ Corresponding author. Virginia Treatment Center for Children, 515 North 10th Street, P.O. Box 980489, Richmond, Virginia 23298-0489, United States. Tel.: +1 804 828 3132. E-mail address: bmcleod@vcu.edu (B.D. McLeod). 0272-7358/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2007.03.001