NCJ Number
192231
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 40 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 1367-1374
Editor(s)
Mina K. Dulcan M.D.
Date Published
December 2001
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article examines whether maternal prenatal, postnatal, or concurrent maternal depressive symptoms were associated with low-level psychosocial functioning and high-level emotion/behavioral problems with school-aged children.
Abstract
After a 1989 Finland prospective follow-up study, this study set out to examine whether high levels of maternal prenatal, postnatal, or concurrent depressive symptoms were associated with a child’s psychosocial functioning and emotion/behavioral problems when a child is of school-age. In addition, it examined whether maternal prenatal and /or postnatal depressive symptoms were associated with a long term increased risk of low functioning or high problem levels in the child and the associations between the timing and the recurrence of a mother’s depressive symptoms, as well as the level of the child’s psychosocial functioning and symptomatology. The original longitudinal study (Finland) consisted of 349 healthy first-time mothers from 1989 to 1990. The latest stage of the study, 1997 to 1998, consisted of 188 mother-child pairs. Using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), a self-report questionnaire designed to detect depression among women in the postpartum period, depressive symptoms of mothers at different time points were screened. In addition, the mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) questionnaire, designed to record children’s competencies and problems as reported by their parents. Study findings included: (1) an unexpected diversity and continual changes in maternal depressive symptom levels over time; (2) an unexpected lack of association between maternal depressive symptoms and internalizing problems of the children; and (3) concurrently symptomatic mothers reported more problems and lower competence in their children than the non-symptomatic mothers, concurring with previous studies. In lieu of these results, the impact of maternal postnatal depressive symptoms on a child’s emotional /behavioral problems in the long run were slight. However, due to study limitations, the results were tentative and needed confirmation. It is important to pay attention to the maternal depressive symptoms at each stage of motherhood, beginning at the prenatal stage. A child’s healthy development is dependent upon the early detection of potential risks. Tables and references