Trajectories of parenting behavior and maternal depression
Section snippets
Effects of depression on maternal parenting and child outcome
Research has shown that children exposed to maternal depression are in risk for a wide range of negative cognitive, emotional and behavioral outcomes (Goodman and Gotlib, 1999, Hay et al., 2001, Murray et al., 2011). Several studies have demonstrated that distal and proximal factors operate jointly over time in linking maternal depression to different developmental pathways in offspring (Cicchetti et al., 1998, Dawson et al., 2003, Downey and Coyne, 1990, Goodman and Gotlib, 1999). Many studies
Participants and recruitment
Fifty-seven mother–infant dyads were recruited from different sources in the Oslo area in Norway: (1) psychiatric hospitals and general health care institutions and (2) well baby clinics and shopping centers. Participants from psychiatric hospitals and general health care were recruited to the depression sub-sample as they were referred for treatment of mental illness during the postpartum period. 42 potentially depressed mothers were informed individually about the project by the first author,
Demographic information and obstetric health history
As shown in Table 1, the depressed, comorbid and nondepressed mothers were not significantly different in age or educational level. Overall, mothers had a high level of completed education. The most frequent degree earned among mothers in the nondepressed and the depressed sub-sample was a Master/PhD degree (50.0% and 71.4% respectively). Among the comorbid mothers the most frequent degree earned was a Bachelor degree (36.8%), followed by a Master/PhD degree (31.6%). The infants of comorbid
Discussion
The present study is one of the first studies comparing trajectories in maternal parenting behavior of mothers with comorbid depression and anxiety and mothers with depression only. Maternal parenting behavior was assessed when the infants were six, 12 and 18 months old in a sample of three types of mothers: mothers with comorbid depression and anxiety disorder, mothers with depression only and mothers with nondepressed mothers. The present study also examined whether maternal depression
Conclusions
The comorbid mothers were rated as lower in quality of maternal parenting behaviors during the first 18 months of the infants’ life as compared to the nondepressed mothers. Despite that the comorbid mothers reported elevated depression symptoms they showed a significant increase in quality of parenting over the follow-up. This suggests that the comorbid and the nondepressed mothers are getting more similar over time in parenting behavior. These findings are incongruent with reports from other
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by “The National Program for Integrated Clinical Specialist and PhD-training for Psychologists” in Norway to the first author. The program is a joint cooperation between Universities of Bergen, Oslo, Tromsø, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim), the Regional Health Authorities, and the Norwegian Psychological Association. The program is funded jointly by The Ministry of Education and Research and The Ministry of Health and Care Services. This
References (66)
- et al.
Maternal depression and comorbidity: Predicting early parenting, attachment security, and toddler social-emotional problems and competencies
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
(2001) - et al.
Specificity of infants’ response to mothers’ affective behavior
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
(1989) - et al.
Maternal depression and anxiety across the postpartum year and infant social engagement, fear regulation, and stress reactivity
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
(2009) Early interactions between infants and their postpartum depressed mothers
Infant Behavior and Development
(1984)- et al.
Comorbid depression and anxiety effects on pregnancy and neonatal outcome
Infant Behavior & Bevelopment
(2010) - et al.
Anxiety and anger effects on depressed mother–infant spontaneous and imitative interactions
Infant Behavior & Development
(2005) - et al.
Exposure to postnatal depression predicts elevated cortisol in adolescent offspring
Biological Psychiatry
(2004) - et al.
Maternal depression and parenting behavior: A meta-analytic review
Clinical Psychology Review
(2000) Paternal socio-psychological factors and infant attachment: The mediating role of synchrony in father-infant interactions
Infant Behavior and Development
(2002)- et al.
Individual differences in joint attention skill development in the second year
Infant Behavior and Development
(1998)