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Poster #128 - Associations Between Maternal Pre and Postnatal Depression and Socioemotional Development in Toddlers

Thu, March 21, 4:00 to 5:15pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Maternal mental health problems are very common in the perinatal period, with up to 25% of women experiencing stress, depression, or anxiety (Priest, 2008). Prior research has implicated perinatal maternal depression as a major risk for adverse neurobehavioral outcome in offspring. Infants of depressed mothers have been found to be at increased vulnerability for developing psychological and behavioral problems (Kingston, 2015), with some infants already exhibiting behavioral, physiological, and biochemical deregulations shortly after birth (Field, 1998). In the first year of life, many infants of depressed mothers exhibit higher levels of distress, negativity, and social avoidance (Cohn, Campbell, Matias, & Hopkins, 1990; Gelfand & Teti, 1990). In this study, we investigated the influence of both pre-and post-natal depression on later (3 years old) infant socio-emotional development.

Study Population: Participants were from a subset of infants enrolled in the Safe Passage Study, a large longitudinal study investigating the impact of prenatal exposures to smoking, alcohol, and environmental factors on birth outcomes. The present sample consists of 481 infants (223 males/189 females) born at term (gestational age at birth M: 39.4 weeks, SD: 1.1 weeks) from the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Participants had a wide range of prenatal exposures to alcohol, smoking, recreational drugs, and/or maternal health conditions.

Methods: Mothers were evaluated for maternal depression at one or more of the following time points: first trimester, third trimester, 1 month postpartum, or 1 year postpartum. Maternal depression was evaluated using The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Infants development was assessed at ~3 years of age (M: 37.5 months, SD: 2.6 months). Infant social and emotional development was evaluated using The Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) and problem and competencies scores were corrected for chronological age at assessment.

Results: Multiple regressions were run to predict socioemotional development from perinatal maternal depression scores, controlling for gestational age at birth, sex, and prenatal exposure status (cigarettes, smoking and alcohol). Maternal depression scores during the first trimester, at one month postpartum, and at one year postpartum and prenatal exposure was associated with increased socioemotional problems (depression at first trimester p=0.000, one-month p=0.005, one-year p=0.000, exposure at first trimester p=0.012, one-month p=0.054, one-year p=0.042). Controlling for sex and gestational age at birth, maternal depression and exposure were not associated with competency scores. No association was found between maternal depression in the 3rd trimester and infant socioemotional outcome at 37 months. Our preliminary results demonstrate a strong association between maternal depression during early gestation and postnatal depression on infant socioemotional development. Ongoing research is addressing the question of interaction between pre and post-natal depression. Further research in this domain may aid in determining the relation between the timing of negative exposures and developmental outcomes, with the goal of examining independent and joint effects of fetal programming and postnatal adversity on later socioemotional outcomes.

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