Associations of Prenatal and Postnatal Maternal Depressive Symptoms with Offspring Cognition and Behavior in Mid-Childhood: A Prospective Cohort Study

Sabrina Faleschini, Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, Henning Tiemeier, Emily Oken and Marie-France Hivert
Additional contact information
Sabrina Faleschini: School of Psychology, Laval University, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman: Division of Chronic Disease Research Across the Lifecourse, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Henning Tiemeier: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Emily Oken: Division of Chronic Disease Research Across the Lifecourse, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Marie-France Hivert: Division of Chronic Disease Research Across the Lifecourse, Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-11

Abstract: Exposure to maternal depressive symptoms in the peri-pregnancy periods may be associated with poorer child development, but research is often limited to only maternal assessments of behavior and cognition. This study investigates the specific periods of prenatal and postnatal exposure to maternal depressive symptoms in association with child development using reports from teachers and mothers. This study is based on 1225 mother–child pairs from Project Viva, a prospective pre-birth cohort study. Mothers reported depressive symptoms on the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS) in mid-pregnancy as well as at 6 months and 12 months postpartum. Teachers and mothers reported child executive functions using the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and behavior using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Children completed the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT-2), the Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Abilities (WRAVMA), and the Visual Memory Index of the Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML). We used multivariable linear regression models to examine associations of prenatal and postpartum depressive symptoms with outcomes. Many of the crude associations observed were attenuated after adjusting for demographic factors and maternal IQ, yet some remained significant. For example, high prenatal maternal depressive symptoms were associated with poorer scores on the BRIEF Behavior Regulation Index and some SDQ scales based on reports from teachers and mothers. High prenatal maternal depressive symptoms were associated with poorer behavioral development. Postpartum symptoms did not show strong associations with outcomes once we adjusted for the prenatal period.

Keywords: maternal depression; child development; behavior problems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/6/1007/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/6/1007/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:6:p:1007-:d:215482

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().