Maternal postnatal depression and anxiety and their association with child emotional negativity and behavior problems at two years

Prenoveau, J. M., Craske, M. G., West, V., Giannakakis, A., Zioga, M., Lehtonen, A., Davies, B., Netsi, E., Cardy, J., Cooper, P., Murray, L. and Stein, A. (2017) Maternal postnatal depression and anxiety and their association with child emotional negativity and behavior problems at two years. Developmental Psychology, 53 (1). pp. 50-62. ISSN 0012-1649 doi: 10.1037/dev0000221

Abstract/Summary

Postnatal maternal depression is associated with poorer child emotional and behavioral functioning, but it is unclear whether this occurs following brief episodes or only with persistent depression. Little research has examined the relation between postnatal anxiety and child outcomes. The present study examined the role of postnatal major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptom chronicity on children’s emotional and behavioral functioning at 24 months. Following postnatal screening mothers (n = 296) were identified as having MDD, GAD, MDD and GAD, or no disorder at 3 months postnatal; the average age was 32.3 (SD = 5.0), 91.9% self-identified as Caucasian, and 62.2% were married. Maternal disorder symptom severity was assessed by questionnaires and structured interview at 3, 6, 10, 14, and 24 months postpartum. At 24 months, child emotional negativity and behavior were assessed using questionnaires and by direct observation. Latent trait-state-occasion modeling was used to represent maternal disorder symptom chronicity; both stable trait and time-specific occasion portions of maternal symptomatology were examined in relation to child outcomes. Only the stable trait portion of maternal MDD and GAD symptom severity were related to maternal report of child behavior problems and higher levels of emotional negativity. Persistent maternal MDD, but not GAD, symptom severity was related to higher levels of child emotional negativity as measured observationally. These data suggest that children’s behavior problems and emotional negativity are adversely affected by persistent maternal depression, and possibly anxiety. This has implications for interventions to prevent negative effects of postnatal psychopathology on children.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/68609
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Neuroscience Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Winnicott
Uncontrolled Keywords	maternal depression, maternal generalized anxiety disorder, postnatal, emotional negativity
Publisher	American Psychological Association
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