Nearly a quarter of mothers who saw fell behind on their rent or mortgage as the recession hit experienced depression.

The figure is included in the latest ESRI Growing Up in Ireland report, which examined the years 2008 to 2011.

The report highlights the impact the downturn had on parenting and stress within families.

It finds that 24% of mothers in families who saw their mortgages or rent payments falling into arrears experienced depression.

That figure dropped to 10% among mothers in families who were able to keep their accommodation costs in the black.

Among fathers, 8.1% who found themselves falling behind utility bills experienced depression – with that figure dropping to 3.8% among those who were able to stay on top of them.

Trinity College Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology Elizabeth Nixon said the struggling economy saw most parents experiencing higher levels of stress.

“We found that 61% of the families were experiencing difficulty in making ends meet and this was a substantial increase from the previous wave of data collection which happened in 2007,” she said.

“Levels of economic strain were had increased substantially in the families and that this had a negative effect on the parent’s mental wellbeing.”

The report found that behavioural and socio-emotional difficulties among children were higher when the mother was experiencing depressive symptoms.

However, it found that while economic hardship has an important influence on parent’s mental health it had only a weak association on quality of parenting.

With accommodation costs, utility bills and the affordability of basic necessities found to be the strongest predictors of economic strain, the authors call for policies to safeguard these to be made a priority in any future downturn.