Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Maternal Depression and Anxiety Across the Postpartum Year and Infant Social Engagement, Fear Regulation, and Stress Reactivity
Section snippets
Participants
The initial sample included 971 mothers who completed measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms on the 2nd post-birth day. Assistants visited the maternity wards of two tertiary care hospitals in a large metropolitan area and invited women who were physically healthy by their own account, delivered a healthy term singleton infant (excluding genetic disorders and infants requiring specialized medical care or NICU hospitalization), completed at least 12 years of education, and were cohabitating
Postpartum Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in a Large Community Cohort
Overall, in this large community cohort on the second postbirth day, 25.2% of the women reported subclinical depressive symptoms (BDI > 9), and 3.6% reported severe depressive symptoms (BDI > 15). High symptoms of anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory > 43) were reported by 12.2% of parturient women.
At 6 months, maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms were related to less optimal measures of parenting, in terms of higher stress, lower sense of competence, and less social support (Table 2).
Discussion
Results of this study are the first to examine the effects of maternal depression in the postpartum year on three infant outcomes central for social-emotional growth— social engagement, fear regulation, and physiological stress reactivity—in comparison with both maternal anxiety disorders and controls. By recruiting a large community sample, separating maternal depression from typically occurring conditions, comparing cases of MDD with those of postpartum anxiety disorders, and assessing the
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The study was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant 1318/08), the US-Israel Bi-National Science Foundation (Grant 2005–273), and the NARSAD Foundation (Independent Investigator Award to R.F.).