Abstract
The study prospectively followed 135 women during their pregnancy and their offspring till 6 months of age, to examine the roles of maternal and paternal depression during pregnancy on offspring neurobehavioral development as measured by their early temperament. Maternal and paternal depression statuses were ascertained during the third trimester, and infant temperament was evaluated at 6 months, via mothers self-report. Multivariable general linear model was used to assess 1) the main effects of maternal and paternal depression on infant temperament and 2) the interaction effect between maternal and paternal depression on infant temperament. Results show that maternal depression, but not paternal depression, was directly associated with greater neurobehavioral impairment in offspring as evident by more difficult temperament, including lower Smiling and Laughter (p= .006), lower Soothability (p= .02), elevated Sadness (p= .04) and lower Vocal Reactivity (p= .001). Moreover, only in the presence of maternal depression, was paternal depression significantly associated with signs of offspring neurobehavioral impairment, including lower Smiling and Laughter (p= .01) lower High Pleasure Seeking (p= .03), lower Soothability (p= .05), lower Cuddliness (p= .05) and lower Vocal Reactivity (p< .0001). These findings suggest that maternal, but not paternal, depression was directly associated with infant neurobehavioral impairment. Significant interaction effect suggests that in the presence of maternal depression, paternal depression amplifies its negative valence on infant neurobehavioral development. Providing intervention services not only for depressed mothers but also their partners during pregnancy may prove to be an effective prevention strategy for suboptimal neurobehavioral development in offspring.
Highlights
Despite the common belief that pregnancy is a happy time in a woman’s life, occurrence of depression during pregnancy reportedly range from 14% to 23% among 25 to 44 year olds [1]
Infants of depressed mothers did not have low scores on Smiling and Laughter unless fathers were depressed (F1, 129 = 3.67, p= .01). Only when both the mother and the father were depressed, infants were less frequent in High Pleasure Seeking activities (F1, 129 = 3.10, p= .03), had low Soothability (F1, 129 = 2.75, p= .05), low Cuddliness when being held by a caregiver (F1, 129 = 2.67, p= .05), and low Vocal Reactivity (F1, 129= 6.80, p< .0001)
Our findings are consistent with existing literature which demonstrated that reactive infant temperaments and behaviors are associated with maternal depression [11,14] and extended the literature by providing the initial evidence that, while paternal depression alone was not associated with reactive temperament, there was a significant interaction between maternal and paternal depression on reactive infant temperament
Summary
Despite the common belief that pregnancy is a happy time in a woman’s life, occurrence of depression during pregnancy reportedly range from 14% to 23% among 25 to 44 year olds [1]. Field et al found that prenatal paternal and maternal depression scores were relatively similar This is especially important because both mothers and fathers provide care for their newborn babies [16]. Infants were found to have better interactions with their non-depressed fathers compared to their depressed mothers, which suggests that non-depressed fathers may buffer the negative effects of maternal depression on infant interaction behavior [17] While various factors such as young age, negative mood, gender role differences [18], marital dissatisfaction, and low social support [19] predicted distress in mothers and their partners during pregnancy, it is plausible that fathers are one of the main sources of emotional support for mothers, and vice versa. The examination of depressive symptoms of both parents during pregnancy, and those independent and interactive effects on early infant temperament, may shed light towards providing effective couple/family intervention plans during pregnancy
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