Interactions Between Depressed Mothers and Their Infants: Maternal Verbal Joint Attention and its Effect on the Infant's Cognitive Development

Abstract

This study compared the interaction between depressed and nondepressed mother‐infant dyads with joint attention during mother‐infant play. The cognitive development of the child was analyzed as an outcome of the interactions. The sample consisted of 41 mothers and their infants who were 13 and 18 months of age. Twenty‐three mothers were depressed and 19 mothers were nondepressed. In the total sample, maternal vocal joint attention for a female infant was more frequent than for a male infant. In the depression group alone the maternal verbal Joint attention to/about a female Infant was more frequent than to/about a male infant. In the control group alone there were no differences in maternal vocal joint attention between boys and girls. In addition, for the total sample, there was a correlation for boys between maternal verbal joint attention and the Bayley MDI, but no correlation for the girls. In the depression group, there was no correlation between maternal joint attention and the Bayley MDI for both boys and girls. However, in the control group, there was a correlation between vocal joint attention and the Bayley MDI for both boys and girls.