New Delhi: According to a new study in Sweden, depression in parents during their child's first 16 years affects the child's school performance in a negative way.

Gender differences were also found in the study numbers, but parental depression problem presents as whole, said researcher Brian Lee from the Dornsife School of Public Health in the US.

Lee said that both maternal as well as parental depression influence child development, found in his as well as many other reports.

Research was held on more than a million children born between 1984 and 1994 in Sweden.

Parental depression also affects their child's final grades at age 16, said researchers while indicating computerized data registers.

The study pointed out that depression in mother lowers the child's grade from 4.5 percent than the child's whose mother had not been diagnosed with depression.

While depression in father lower their grades from four percent.

"Anything that creates an uneven playing field for children in terms of their education can potentially have strong implications for health inequities down the road," said another researcher FeliceLê-Scherban from the Dornsife School of Public Health in the US.

Study found that parental depression affects more than boys between 11-16.

"There are many notable sex differences in depression, but, rather than comparing maternal versus paternal depression, we should recognize that parental depression can have adverse consequences not just for the parents but also for their children," Lee said.(IANS)