Trajectories of maternal depression and offspring psychopathology at 6 years: 2004 Pelotas cohort study

Matijasevich, A., Murray, J., Cooper, P. J., Anselmi, L., Barros, A. J. D., Barros, F. C. and Santos, I. S. (2015) Trajectories of maternal depression and offspring psychopathology at 6 years: 2004 Pelotas cohort study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 174. pp. 424-431. ISSN 0165-0327 doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.12.012

Abstract/Summary

BACKGROUND: Few studies have addressed the course and severity of maternal depression and its effects on child psychiatric disorders from a longitudinal perspective. This study aimed to identify longitudinal patterns of maternal depression and to evaluate whether distinct depression trajectories predict particular psychiatric disorders in offspring. METHODS: Cohort of 4231 births followed-up in the city of Pelotas, Brazil. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at 3, 12, 24 and 48 months and 6 years after delivery. Psychiatric disorders in 6-year-old children were evaluated through the development and well-being assessment (DAWBA) instrument. Trajectories of maternal depression were calculated using a group-based modelling approach. RESULTS: We identified five trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms: a "low" trajectory (34.8%), a "moderate low" (40.9%), a "increasing" (9.0%), a "decreasing" (9.9%), and a "high-chronic" trajectory (5.4%). The probability of children having any psychiatric disorder, as well as both internalizing and externalizing problems, increased as we moved from the "low" to the "high-chronic" trajectory. These differences were not explained by maternal and child characteristics examined in multivariate analyses. LIMITATIONS: Data on maternal depression at 3-months was available on only a sub-sample. In addition, we had to rely on maternal report of child's behavior alone. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed an additive effect on child outcome of maternal depression over time. We identified a group of mothers with chronic and severe symptoms of depression throughout the first six years of the child life and for this group child psychiatric outcome was particularly compromised.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/40023
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
Publisher	Elsevier
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