Children whose mothers experience rising levels of depression from the period before pregnancy until the months just after giving birth are at greater risk of developing emotional, social and academic problems during their youth, UCLA psychology researchers and colleagues report.
Their recently published seven-year study, which tracked mothers and their offspring from preconception until the children were 5 years old, is the first to demonstrate how changes in mothers’ level of depression over time may impact early childhood behavior and emotional well-being, the authors said.
“Our findings suggest that increases in mother’s symptoms of depression from preconception to postpartum contribute to children’s lower attention and behavioral control, which can raise the risk of problems across the life span,” said lead author Gabrielle Rinne, a UCLA psychology graduate student. “Parents should know, however, that this can be addressed through early childhood intervention.”
For the two-part study, the researchers first analyzed data on 362 women — most of whom were Black or Hispanic and from low-income backgrounds — collected as part of a study by the Community Child Health Network, a collaboration among health scientists from UCLA and other institutions, along with community partners, that investigated disparities in maternal and child health among poor and minority families.
The women, all of whom already had a young child, were followed through a subsequent pregnancy and were interviewed on four occasions about their symptoms of depression — once before becoming pregnant, twice during pregnancy and again approximately three months after their baby’s birth — with researchers tracking how these symptoms changed over time.
Just under 75% of the women reported low symptoms of depression that didn’t change over the study period, while 12% had low symptoms that significantly increased and 7% had persistently high symptoms.
Source: Read Full Article