A study of mothers and their infants found that mothers with symptoms of depression tended to have less supportive responses to their infants’ positive emotions. Conversely, infants with less supportive responses are more likely to show symptoms of depression in early childhood. The paper is Development and psychopathology.
Symptoms of depression refer to a variety of emotional, cognitive, and physical experiences associated with depression. Emotionally, a person may feel persistent sadness, hopelessness, and emptiness, often accompanied by a loss of interest and enjoyment in activities they once enjoyed. Cognitively, depression can cause difficulty concentrating, making decisions, and remembering details, along with feelings of worthlessness and excessive guilt. Physical symptoms include fatigue, changes in appetite or weight, sleep disturbances (insomnia or oversleeping), and unexplained aches and pains. These symptoms vary in severity and duration, but usually interfere with daily functioning and quality of life.
Research has proven that symptoms of depression are often transmitted between generations (intergenerationally), especially between mothers and children. These studies show that children exposed to maternal depressive symptoms in the first year of life are more likely to develop internalizing symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, social withdrawal) by age 2 to 19 years. It shows that. However, the exact mechanisms underlying this transmission remain to be elucidated. Unclear.
Study author Gabriel Schmidt and colleagues sought to investigate how symptoms of depression are transmitted from mothers to infants. They hypothesized that mothers with increased depressive symptoms in the first year postpartum would respond less supportively to their infant’s positive emotions. As a result, infants with less support for positive emotions show more depressive symptoms in early childhood.
The study involved 128 mothers and their infants recruited through various means from Toronto, Canada, as part of a larger longitudinal study of early childhood development. Mothers were required to be fluent in English, at least 18 years of age, and without serious medical conditions. Infants must weigh at least 2,500 grams at birth.
Data were collected at three time points: early infancy (approximately 6–7 months of age), late infancy (approximately 12 months of age), and early childhood (approximately 20 months of age). By the third data collection point, 90 mother-infant pairs (70%) remained in the study. Data collection included an online Qualtrics survey. Mothers completed ratings of their own depressive symptoms using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale at the first and second time points and the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 1.5 to 5 years at the third time point. completed an assessment of depression symptoms in young children.
Additionally, the researchers visited the participants’ homes and videotaped the mothers interacting with their infants for 30 minutes. Mothers were given a standardized set of toys and instructed to interact with their infants as they normally would. These interactions were divided into three 10-minute episodes. The first episode included free interaction, the second episode included the use of a toy, and the third episode included interaction without the use of a toy. The study authors used these videos to assess infants’ expression of positive emotions and their mothers’ reactions to those emotions.
Results showed that 22% of mothers exhibited clinical levels of postpartum depression. On average, mothers had twice as many supportive responses to their infants’ positive emotions compared to non-supportive responses. Maternal responses did not differ by infant gender.
Overall, mothers with elevated postpartum depressive symptoms tended to respond less supportively to their infants’ positive emotions. Second, infants who responded less supportively showed more depressive symptoms in early childhood.
The study authors tested a statistical model suggesting that the number of supportive responses infants received mediated the association between maternal and infant depressive symptoms. The results supported the possibility of such a relationship.
“Findings suggest that maternal socialization of infants’ positive emotions is an important mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of depressive symptoms. These results support the use of preventive interventions during early development. “We highlight the need for this,” the study authors concluded.
This study sheds light on the potential mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of depression. However, it is important to note that both infant and maternal depressive symptoms were reported by the mothers themselves, leaving room for reporting bias that may have influenced the results.
The paper isIntergenerational transmission of depressive symptoms: maternal socialization mediated by infants’ positive emotions;” was written by Gabriel Schmidt, Brittany Jamieson, Daniel Lim, and Leslie Atkinson.
