Poster group
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poster
This study examined the tactile self-comforting behavior of infants of depressed and nondepressed mothers. A sample of 129 mothers were assessed at 6 weeks and 4 months post-partum for depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Mothers were assigned at each age to one of three groups: low scoring (0-1), control (2-15) and depressed (16+). At four months mothers and infants were videotaped during face-to-face play. The first 2.5 minutes of continuous face-to-face play were coded second by second for infant tactile self-comfort behavior (touch own skin, mother, object, or more than one behavior).0D09 Maternal CES-D at 6 weeks, but not 4 months, was associated with infant self-comfort behavior at 4 months. The infants of mothers who scored both low (0,1) and high (16+) on the CES-D at 6 weeks spent greater proportions of time touching their own skin, and showed longer mean durations and greater proportions of time in more then one self-comfort behavior. These findings may suggest that mothers who score either high or low on the CES-D at 6 weeks, as compared to controls, interact with their infants in ways that increase the infants' self-comforting behavior. These findings may suggest that both the low scoring and high scoring mothers may be less attuned, and in turn their infants may work harder at soothing themselves. Alternatively, it is possible that the infants themselves may have a different regulation system, when mothers score low or depressed on the CES-D. The findings suggest that mothers who score low on the CES-D, as well as mothers who score high, do comprise categories distinct from controls. Maternal depression symptoms occurring closer to the birth of the infant are more closely associated with the infant's behavior at 4 months than maternal depression present at the time of the 4 month videotaping.
poster
Most studies of maternal depression divide the entire sample into two groups, depressed and non-depressed. The present study sought to determine if different subgroups of mothers and infants would emerge based on varying levels of mothers' self-reported levels of depressive symptoms (measured by the CES-D), in conjunction with microanalytic codes of infant and mother face, gaze and touch behavior. Interaction patterns were examined in a community sample of 100 mothers and their 4 month old infants.0D Videotapes of face to face interactions were coded second by second. Infant variables included gaze, head orientation, facial expression, body distancing, self-comfort, and visual object engagement. Mother variables included gaze, facial expression, and touch behavior. Principal components analyses were performed on both the mother variables and infant variables, yielding 6 factors for mother, and 5 factors for infant data. Cluster analyses were then performed on the mother and infant factors. Results demonstrated a high level of heterogeneity in behavioral profiles of both mothers and infants. No homogenous subgroups were found using the cluster analysis. However, several correlations between mother factors and infant factors were found. Positive correlations occurred between mother positive face and infant positive face, mother intrusive touch and infant negative face, mother moderately intrusive touch and infant head aversion, and mother extreme variability in facial expression and infant head aversion. A negative correlation was found between mother intrusive touch and infant head aversion. Patterns of mother and infant behavior in the 13 mothers with the highest depressive symptomatology were explored. Eleven of these 13 mothers scored below the mean on the factor 'Positive Face', and 9 of the 13 scored below the mean on the factor 'Gentle Touch'. The infants scored lower on the factor 'Positive Face' and higher on the factors 'Head Aversion', 'Negative Face' and 'Self-comfort'. In conclusion, all relationships occurred between mother factors and infant factors. Cluster analyses were not able to differentiate subgroups of subjects. Possible reasons for the lack of subgroups, including social and environmental factors, were explored. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 01 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0.
poster
This study was designed to enrich our understanding of the variety of factors that influence mother-infant tactile communication. Depressed (n 24) and nondepressed (n 102) mothers from three ethnic groups (23 Blacks, 35 Latinas, 68 Whites) were filmed in a laboratory during face-to-face play with their 4-month-old infants (73 boys, 53 girls). Each second of the first 2.5 min of videotaped interaction was assigned a 10-digit code for tactile behavior (21 types), intensity, and body location. Analyses of variance were conducted with infant gender, maternal ethnicity, and maternal depression as the independent variables and maternal tactile dimension as the dependent variable. Maternal education was also included as an independent variable on selected analyses.Patterns of maternal touch were shaped by infant gender, maternal ethnicity, and maternal depression, and by interactions among these variables. Mothers of boys touched central areas of the infant’s body, and varied their mode of touch, significantly more than mothers of girls. Depressed mothers engaged in significantly less affectionate touch, and more object-mediated touch, than non-depressed mothers. White mothers kissed and caressed the infant significantly more than Black mothers. Sons of Black nondepressed mothers were touched more than 7 times as often as daughters. Latina mothers’ tactile behavior was characterized by higher intensity than that of Black or White mothers, and by more frequent variations than that of White mothers. Latina depressed mothers engaged in rough types of touch more than 20 times as often with boys than with girls. The findings were interpreted using insights from psychoanalytic theory, social ecology, cognitive science, anthropology, and women’s and ethnic studies. In particular, it was argued that maternal tactile communication serves as an unconscious, presymbolic method of ethnic and gender socialization designed to promote infant survival within particular sociocultural milieus. The findings suggest that cultural differences in tactile communication may be transmitted and maintained via the mother-infant dyad. The study contributes to our understanding of mother-infant communication, nonverbal socialization, and gender-specific effects of maternal depression. Furthermore, the findings underscore the importance of incorporating the tactile domain in interventions with depressed mothers, and of attending to gender, ethnicity, and culture in infant research, parent-infant psychotherapy, and adult treatment.
poster
The relationship between maternal depression and maternal speech content was examined in 87 mother-infant dyads at 4 months. Speech content reflects the mother's characteristic ways of ascribing meaning to the interaction. Because most studies of mother-infant interaction have focused on nonverbal action patterns, little is known of the mother's subjective experience. To date, only one study, that of Murray, Kempton, Woolgar, and Hooper (1993), has comprehensively examined speech content of depressed mothers during face-to-face interaction with their infants. The present study sought to extend the work of Murray et al. (1993) by: 1) elaborating the coding system and employing more rigorous reliability standards; 2) measuring self-report depression, based on symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, CES-D), as well as object relations (Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, DEQ, Self-Criticism and Dependency scales); and 3) using a measure of infant gaze at mother to control for level of infant interactive involvement. The CES-D showed a positive linear relationship with the DEQ Self-Criticism and Dependency scales, with a stronger relationship noted for the former. The CES-D was not related to maternal speech, regardless of whether the influence of infant gaze was covaried or considered interactively. The lack of relationship between the CES-D and maternal speech was unexpected, given Murray et al.'s (1993) finding of a relationship between maternal speech and the Standardised Psychiatric Interview. This discrepancy may be due to differences in the coding of maternal speech, or the measures used to assess maternal depression. The DEQ scales emerged as more sensitive than the CES-D. The DEQ Dependency scale had a positive linear relationship with child-centered speech. The DEQ Self-Criticism scale had a negative linear relationship with positive speech, and interacted with maternal ethnicity in accounting for variance in negative speech. Both DEQ scales interacted with infant gaze to predict action-acknowledging speech. Decreasing maternal depressive experience was associated with an increasing tendency to use action-acknowledging speech in response to more visually-engaged infants. Increasing maternal depressive experience was associated with an increasing tendency to use action-acknowledging speech in response to less visually engaged infants. Thus, with lower maternal depressive experience, infant action was more likely to be verbally acknowledged within the mutual gaze encounter; and with higher maternal depressive experience, infant action was more likely to be verbally acknowledged while the infant was looking away. The presence of these DEQ findings points to the importance of using a broader conceptualization of maternal depression in future studies.
poster
Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing interest in theways that mothers' psychological functioning and parenting stress influencethe quality of mother-infant interactions. Inner-city mothers who facepoverty and multiple stressful life circumstances are found to beespecially at risk for mental health problems and have been found todemonstrate more punitive and less sensitive behaviors in theirinteractions with young children. Thus, poverty is thought to ultimatelyimpede on children's development through its link with maternalpsychological well being. In this study we further examined the relationsamong maternal depression, stress, and social support and the relationsbetween these indices and the quality of mother-child interaction in agroup of 65 low-income mothers enrolled in an Early Head Start (EHS)program. As part of the intake procedures, dyads were tested during theirfirst month of enrollment in EHS. All infants were between the age of 12-24months. Mothers were interviewed with a series of psychometrically establishedmeasures including: (a) Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale(CES-D, Randolph, 1977), (b) Parenting Stress Inventory - Short Form(PSI-SF, Abidin, 1990), (c) Vaux Social Support Record (SSR, Vaux &Harrison, 1985), and (d) Short Temperament Scale for Toddlers (Pedlow, etal., 1993). All of these measures were translated into Spanish andcollected by a bilingual researcher. Social workers from EHS completed theInfant/Toddler HOME Inventory (Caldwell & Bradley, 1978) on their firsthome visits to families. Observational measures of participant dyads wereadministered in a separate room in the EHS site. First, mothers werepresented with a set of age appropriate toys and asked to interact withtheir toddlers for 15 minutes as they normally would. Next, mothers wereasked to demonstrate to their toddlers 3 different task-oriented toys.Throughout the videotaping mothers addressed their children in their nativelanguage. Coding of the mother-child interaction was adapted from theMother-Child Interaction Scale (Meadow-Orlans & Steinberg, 1993). Correlations between maternal psychological measures showed that moredepression was associated with more parenting stress and lower levels ofsatisfaction with social support. Moreover, mothers who reported moredepression and stress demonstrated less sensitivity and more intrusivenesswhen interacting with their toddlers. Also mothers who had fewer and/orless frequently engaged networks of support showed less involvement andmore intrusiveness in their interactions. More positively engagedmother-child interactions were related in the expected direction to severalsubscales of the HOME Inventory: less parenting distress and parent-childinteractional dysfunction was related to more acceptance, organization,learning materials, and variety in the home environment. In addition,dysfunctional mother-child interaction was generally related to morepathological maternal personality characteristics and more difficult infanttemperaments. In a longitudinal follow-up of these dyads, we are currentlyexamining predictive relations between measures of mothers' psychologicalfunctioning and mother-infant interactions and toddlers' developmentalachievements during through the third year, and the contributions ofparticipation in the EHS in ameliorating the dysfunctional interactionpatterns in these dyads.
poster
Previous research has suggested some mechanisms linking maternal depressionwith non-optimal infant outcomes including disruptions in parentingbehavior, parent-infant affective dysregulation, and marital difficulty.Little emphasis has been placed specifically on the timing of depression,including onset, course and severity as it relates to infant outcomes. Weaddress the question, Does depression during the postpartum period haveunique implications for infant outcomes? We present data from the FamilyRelationships Study, an NIMH-funded longitudinal study of women and theirfamilies from pregnancy through 14 months postpartum. A total of 117families were seen through the child's first year of life.Maternal Depression. At the prenatal assessment, clinicians conducted theStructured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV with mothers to make diagnoses oflifetime Axis I disorders. We prospectively obtained information regardingonset of diagnostic episodes and monthly symptom ratings from the start ofthe study through 14 months postpartum. Infant Social-Emotional Competence. At 4 and 14 months postpartum,following observation, a clinician rated infants on 10 scales summed togive a global impression of the child's competence, with higher scoresreflecting poor competence. In addition, we modified the Infant EngagementPhases scoring system (Weinberg and Tronick) to code infantsocial-emotional competence while playing with a parent. Scores reflectthe proportion of time infants displayed each of 6 states during a10-minute play episode (Negative Protest, Sad/Withdrawal, Positive; NeutralPlay; Positive Play; and Attention to something outside the dyadicinteraction).Results: Groups and Timing of Depression. Subject groups were formedbased on illness characteristics. The no illness control group had nohistory of DSM-IV Major Depression-56% of the sample; the Postpartum groupexperienced a Major Depression during the one year period following thebirth of the baby-15% of the sample; and the Other Major Depression groupexperienced a Major Depression at a time other than the postpartumperiod-29% of the sample.Results: Timing of Depression and Infant Competence. One -way ANOVAs wereconducted to assess differences between groups. Infants of mothers in all3 groups spent most of the time (45%) playing positively with toys (F1.11,ns). However, infants of postpartum depressed mothers were sad more thanother infants, engaging with neither the mother nor toys (F4.59, p<.01).In addition, infants of postpartum depressed mothers were rated byclinicians as more incompetent than other infants (F5.90, p < .01).Preliminary analyses of 14 month data (which will be completed by July,2000) suggest that it is the occurrence of a postpartum depression (asopposed to occurrence of depression at other times) that predicts to infantincompetence both at 4 and 14 months.Conclusions: Lifetime history of major depression in and of itself is notnecessarily a risk factor for poor infant outcome. Results suggest thatthere is something unique about postpartum depression that is particularlytroublesome for infants during the first year of life.
poster
A large body of literature attests to the importance of the early mother-infant interaction for childdevelopment and well-being. Furthermore, studies involving interactional situations between mothersstruggling with depression and their infants provide impressive evidence for the significance of qualityparenting. Given the predominant responsibility of the adult caregiver to shape interactions with infants,it is important to determine how competent depressed mothers are at interpreting the subtlecommunicative attempts of their pre-verbal infants. The current study was designed to examine therelationship between depressed and well mothers' interpretations of infants' facial expressions and thequality of interactions between them and their babies. As part of a longitudinal project, this study involved 24 clinically depressed and 27 well mothers ofinfants 6 months or younger at their first visit to our playroom, in which they were videotaped during afive-minute free-play situation. These Caucasian (69%) and African American (31%) mothersrepresented a range of socioeconomic status levels. Videotaped segments were rated by trained, blindobservers using variables from Clark's (1985) Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment (ERA), whichwere collapsed into six scales assessing positive and negative aspects of the mother, the infant, and thedyad. Higher scores on all scales reflect more positive interaction. Mothers also completed the IFEELPictures (IFP), a measure developed by Emde et al. (1993) to tap adults' capacity to interpret infant facialexpressions of emotion, and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, 1987), to assess their currentlevels of depressive symptoms. Results reveal that depressed and well mothers interpret different emotions on the IFP and that theirperceptions of different emotions bear different associations with the quality of their parenting on theERA scales. Although the depressed and well mothers did not differ in terms of the overall accuracywith which they detected infants' emotions on the IFP, they perceived different types of emotions. Specifically, depressed mothers perceived more anger, disgust, and surprise and less interest than did wellmothers. In addition, depressed mothers who perceived more distress (e.g., uncomfortable, upset) hadmore negative affect and behavior during interaction with their infants (r -.44). In contrast, wellmothers who perceived more sadness had more positive affective involvement, sensitivity andresponsiveness (r .48) as well as less negative affect and behavior (r .53) when interacting with theirinfants. Furthermore, well mothers' perceptions of fear were associated with more infant dysregulationand irritability (r -.49) and more dyadic tension (r -.43) during mother-infant interactions. Thesefindings suggest that better parenting may be associated less with mothers' accuracy of perceivedemotions and more with what kinds of emotions they detect.The degree of mothers' depressive symptoms on the BDI was also associated with theirinterpretations of infants' facial expressions on the IFP, with noteworthy differences between thedepressed and well groups. First, depressive symptoms were negatively correlated with accuracy on theIFP among the depressed mothers only (r -.32), consistent with the broader range of BDI scores in thedepressed (M 25.43, SD 10.58) as compared with the well (M 6.74, SD 5.24) group. Second,higher BDI scores were associated with the perception of more anger and more distress among depressedmothers and with more anger and less fear among well mothers. Overall, these findings emphasize therole of depressive symptoms in mothers' perceptions of infants' emotions and in the quality of mother-infant interactions.
poster
Mothers of young infants often experience sleep loss and fragmentationbecause of the need to feed and care for their infants during the night. Inaddition, numerous experimental studies have documented the deleterious impacton cognitive and emotional functioning of sleep deprivation and fragmentation.The present study therefore was designed to examine the socioemotionalfunctioning of mothers of 3-month-old infants, about half of whom are expectedto be waking regularly at night for care and feeding. To date, 12 mothers haveparticipated in the study. Participants are asked to complete a daily activity diary for threedaysprior to a laboratory visit. They also complete several questionnairesprior toand during the laboratory visit, and participate in several activities withtheir infant and alone during the visit. The present report focuses onrelationships between measures of maternal sleep and several measures ofmaternal socioemotional functioning. The measures of sleep used in the present analyses include ameasure ofsleep loss, a measure of sleep interruptions, and mothers responses to theVerran-Halpern Visual Analog Sleep (VAS) Scales. Mothers reported getting anaverage of 6.08 hours of sleep per night (range 5-8). They claimed to need anaverage of 6.75 hours of sleep per night (range 6-8) to function well. Becausemothers differ in their need for sleep, a sleep loss variable wascalculated bysubtracting their reported sleep from their reported need for sleep. The sleepinterruption measure used was mothers report of the number of nights per weektheir sleep was interrupted. Mothers reported having their sleepinterrupted anaverage of 5.08 nights per week (range 0-7). The VAS includes questions aboutthe nature and quality of sleep during the previous night, and results inseveral scale scores. Those considered here include sleep fragmentation(FRAG)and sleep quality (QUAL). Socioemotional measures include the Beck DepressionInventory (BDI), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), the Parenting Sense ofCompetence Scale (PSOC, satisfaction and efficacy subscales), the MaternalEfficacy Questionnaire (MEQ), and the RAND Health Survey (emotional healthsubscale). Significant correlations are reported in Table 1. More depressedmothersreported greater sleep loss, more sleep fragmentation, and lower quality ofsleep. Less good marital relationships were associated with greater sleeploss, more sleep interruptions, and more fragmented sleep. Less parentingsatisfaction was associated with greater sleep loss and lower quality ofsleep.Lower parenting self-efficacy was associated with greater sleep loss, morefragmented sleep, and lower quality of sleep. Less good emotional health wasassociated with more sleep loss, more sleep interruptions, more sleepfragmentation, and lower quality of sleep. These results indicate that mothers whose sleep is shortened anddisrupted by caring for their infant may experience emotional healthdifficulties such as depression, decreased marital and parenting satisfaction,and decreased maternal self-efficacy. Further data collection and analyseswill allow more detailed examination of these relationships and determinationof the effects of sleep disruption on mother-infant relations.Table 1Significant correlations (p < .05, one-tailed tests) between sleep measuresandsocioemotional measures_________________________________________________________________________ Sleep measures________________________________________________________________ Sleep Loss Interruptions VAS-FRAG VAS-QUAL ________________________________________________________________BDI .77 .55 -.60DAS -.54 -.54-.70 PSOC-SAT -.62 .80PSOC-EFF -.62-.54 .51MEQ .54RAND -.67 -.55 -.60 .54 _________________________________________________________________________
poster
There is evidence from previous studies of joint attention that the adult(usually mother) assumes most of the burden of engaging the child. Post-hocobservations indicate that this is accomplished primarily by following thechild's focus rather than imposing her own agenda. However, there is anotherbody of literature which looks at the within-child correlates of jointattention. This literature seems to assume that joint attention is a normaldevelopmental task for all children that is minimally affected by the mother'scontribution. Currently, there is no work in the literature that has tried tosynthesize these two bodies of literature and look at joint attention as thetruly dyadic phenomenon that it is.The majority of the literature conceptualizes joint attention as a developmentalconstruct critical to the social, cognitive, and emotional development of thechild. Variations have been found in how well the dyads are able to establish andmaintain joint attention. Maternal depression has been associated with thedyad's difficulty in successfully achieving joint attention (Jameson, Gelfand,Kulcsar, & Teti, 1997), with great variability in the depressed mothers'abilities to facilitate joint attention.Despite the variability in the ability of some mothers to successfully work toestablish joint attention, the fact remains that all toddlers eventually are ableto engage in joint attentional behaviors, usually by age 18-months. This leavesthe question as to whether or not there is something that children do tocompensate when their mother is not adept at facilitating joint attention.The present study is part of a larger study examining the relationships betweenmaternal depression and child development. 134 mothers (71 depressed, 63control) and their 18-month-olds participated. All 71 depressed mothersexperienced a major depressive episode since the child's birth. The 63 ControlGroup mothers had no history of any mood disorder at any time in their life.Joint attention and initiation styles (mother following the child's focus, motherpresenting new focus, maternal control, child following their own focus, andchild following the mother's focus) were coded during a 10-minute snack, which ispart of the laboratory segment of the larger study.Preliminary analyses run on approximately 2/3 of the sample do not supportevidence found previously that depressed mother dyads engage in joint attentionless frequently than their non-depressed counterparts. However, the mechanism bywhich depressed mother dyads achieve joint attention appears to be different.Among the depressed mother dyads, the best predictor of percentage of time spentin joint attention, duration of longest joint attention episode, and mean lengthof joint attention episodes is the frequency with which the child makes aninitiation bid following the mother's focus of attention. Among thenon-depressed dyads, no best predictor emerged. Thus, it appears that althoughthe depressed mother dyads are showing similar rates of joint attention, they areachieving it by having the child eliciting the mother's attention, suggestingthat the child may be bearing most of the burden for establishing jointattention. Further analyses will be presented to help to clarify thisdistinction.
poster
Recently developmental researchers have begun to view certain forms ofnoncompliance in toddlers, such as self-assertive behavior, as importantcontributors to children's autonomy development and social competence in handlinginterpersonal conflict (Crockenberg & Litman, 1990). Children's noncompliancebehaviors vary in their quality and skill, largely as a function of toddlers'abilities to control their behavior and negative affect. Self-assertivestrategies in toddlers, including simple refusals and statements of one'scompetence and intent, have been distinguished as more socially skilled thanother noncompliance strategies, including direct defiance or ignoring parentalrequests. Self-assertive behavior in toddlers has also been associated with ahost of prosocial outcomes in later interactions with peers and adults (Kuczynski& Kochanska, 1990). Maternal depression has been studied as a risk factor for reduced degrees ofparental autonomy granting and other optimal parenting behaviors. Children ofseverely depressed mothers have been found to exhibit the lowest levels ofself-assertion across a three-year period, from the toddler to preschool period(Kuczynski & Kochanska, 1990). Deficits self-assertive behaviors may be relatedto these children's increased risk of depression later in their lives. Thepresent study examines if self-assertive behaviors are impaired in toddlers ofdepressed mothers. 123 mothers and their toddlers (mean age: 25 months) participated in thisstudy. 72 mothers had experienced an episode of clinical depression sometimesince their child's birth and 63 mothers served in the control group and had nohistory of depression. Maternal depression history was assessed retrospectivelyand concurrently with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (First,Gibbon, Spitzer, & Williams, 1995). Both groups were matched on SES, ethnicity,sex of child and other demographic variables. Self-assertive behaviors were assessed through observing children's resistanceto unwanted help on four tasks modified from Geppert & Kuster's (1983) paradigmthat elicits 'wanting-to-do-it-oneself.' Two tasks involved the childreninteracting with an examiner and two tasks involved the children interacting withtheir mothers. For all tasks, 3 increasingly intrusive offers of help are madetowards the children, the third bid being a physical intrusion on their play(e.g. a piece of the toy is pulled from the child's hand and placed in a shapesorter). A system for coding self-assertive behaviors in children was developedfor use in this study. Preliminary analyses were conducted on 84% of the sample (N:103). Significantdifferences were found in toddlers' self-assertive behaviors towards the examinerafter physical intrusion as a function of exposure to maternal depression in thedevelopmental period from 19-25 months [F:4.084, p:.02]. There was a significantinteraction between exposure to maternal depression at 19-25 months of age andSES in toddlers' self-assertive verbal responses to examiner [F:4.77, p:.035].There was a significant interaction between exposure to maternal depression at19-25 months of age and gender in toddlers' self-assertive behavioral responsesto their mothers [F:3.84, p:.026]. Significant differences were found inchildren's self-assertive responses to examiner vs. mother in both physicalintrusive episodes. Discussion will involve the implications of maternaldepression on toddlers' self-assertive behaviors and autonomy development.*incomplete data presented at 1999 Society for Research in Child Development;complete data will be presented during 2000 International Conference for InfantStudies (pending acceptance of submission).
poster
Background: Approximately 10-15% of otherwise healthy mothers report clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms during the first 6 months postpartum. High levels of maternal postpartum depression are problematic because they are associated with compromised maternal functioning and child outcomes. Several investigators have suggested that women of color living in the U.S. (particularly Black women) experience higher rates of depression than other groups of women. However, this claim is difficult to evaluate because much of this research has confounded ethnicity with socio-economic status. Black women in the U.S. are more likely than their Caucasian counterparts to live in poverty and must typically cope with multiple risk factors associated with living in chronic poverty, in addition to possible depression. Although any of these risk factors may exacerbate depressive symptoms or contribute to compromised parenting and child maladaptation, few studies have controlled for the effects of these co-morbid risk factors, either in the study design or statistically. The objective of this exploratory study was to evaluate the severity and correlates of maternal postpartum depressive symptoms in a sample of working to upper-middle class Black mothers during the first six months postpartum. Subjects were selected to meet low-risk demographic and health inclusion criteria to minimize the effect of confounding factors known to contribute to impaired caregiving and poor infant outcome.Methods: Participants were 92 mothers of African heritage living in Massachusetts, U.S.A. (M age 3D 29 years, M education 3D 14.5 years, M Hollingshead SES 3D 46.8, 57% married, 55% primiparous) and their infants (48% male, 55% firstborn, 100% term). Subjects were participants in a larger ongoing longitudinal study. Mothers' depressive and other psychiatric symptoms were assessed with the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) at 2, 3, and 6 months infant age. Information about family structure, demographics, employment, childcare arrangements, and maternal and familial adaptation was also obtained at 3 and 6 months.Results: Twenty-six percent of the study mothers had CES-D scores above the clinical cutoff for depression (16 or higher) at one or more points during the first six months postpartum. This percentage is higher than the expected 10-15% reported in community samples. Correlation analyses indicated that higher CES-D scores were related to lower maternal satisfaction with work and child care arrangements (r 3D -.20, p3D.05), larger family size as reflected in more children (r (91)3D .22, p 3D.03) and adults (r3D.25, p 3D .02) in the household, and younger maternal age (r3D -.22, p 3D .03). Although CES-D scores were unrelated to marital status, maternal education, or SES, higher CES-D scores were significantly associated with lower income level (r (94)3D-.36, p 3D .0004) and lower self-reported satisfaction with income (r (95)3D -.57, p3D.0001).Conclusions: Findings indicate a greater than expected incidence of high depressive symptom levels in this understudied cohort of Black mothers. Primary correlates of depressive symptoms included dissatisfaction with work and childcare arrangements, larger family size, younger maternal age, and inadequate income. Future research in our lab will evaluate whether maternal depressive symptoms show the same relations to mother-infant interactive behavior and infants' developmental outcomes as in other cohorts.
poster
Background: In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the functioning of individuals who suffer from subsyndromal depression and who do not meet DSM-III or IV diagnostic criteria for major depression (MDD). This interest stems from the recognition that many people in the general population with subclinical depression report significant compromises in functioning. However, relatively little is known about subsyndromal depression during the postpartum period. Thus the objectives of this study were to evaluate: 1] the differential impact of subsyndromal depressive symptomatology and major depression on the psychosocial functioning of primiparous mothers three months postpartum; and 2] whether a pregravid history of major depression in the absence of postpartum depression compromises maternal postpartum functioning.Methods: Participants were 120 primiparous mothers. At 3 months postpartum, mothers' depressive symptoms were assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression Scale (CES-D), their psychiatric symptomatology with the Symptom Checklist -90-R, their positive and negative affect with the Differential Emotions Scale, and their maternal self-esteem and adaptation to motherhood with the Maternal Self-Report Inventory. Mothers' diagnostic status was assessed using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS-III-R) at 12 months postpartum. Subclinical depression was defined as a CES-D score of 16 or higher in the absence of a DIS-III-R diagnosis of major depression. Mothers were classified into four groups: 1) Mothers with a pre-birth history of MDD but no postpartum diagnosis of depression (PPD) or elevated postpartum depressive symptoms on the CES-D (MDD History group; n28); 2) Mothers with a pre-birth history of MDD plus a postpartum diagnosis of MDD (MDD History + PPD group; n23); 3) Mothers with elevated postpartum depressive symptoms on the CES-D but no pre-birth or postpartum diagnosis of MDD (High CES-D group; n30); and, 4) Mothers with no pre-birth history of MDD, no postpartum diagnosis of MDD, and no elevated postpartum CES-D scores (Control group; n41). Results: Data were analyzed using 4(group) x 2(infant gender) ANOVAs. Results were the following: 1] Mothers with subclinical depression reported more depressive and psychiatric symptoms, anxiety, negative affect, less positive affect, and poorer maternal self-esteem than control mothers; 2] Mothers of girls with subclinical depression showed comparable impairment to mothers of girls who had experienced major depression pre-and post-birth of the infant. Mothers of boys with a history of pre and postgravid major depression reported poorer functioning than mothers of boys with subclinical depression; 3] Mothers of girls with a pregravid history of major depression but no postpartum depression did not show compromises in maternal postpartum functioning. However, for mothers of boys, a history of major depression was associated with compromises in the mothers' adaptation to motherhood and elevated levels of depressive symptomatology.Conclusions: The findings emphasize the clinical importance of assessing maternal history of subclinical symptomatology and major depression and the infant's gender. Consideration of these factors in prevention and intervention work is crucial since the mother's depression places at risk not only her functioning but also her infant's development.