Maternal Depression/Anxiety and Infant Development: Differential Relations with Mother Reported and Laboratory Observed Infant Emotionality

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

Caregivers reporting higher levels of stress and adversity may perceive their infants as significantly more negative, shaping caregiver-infant interactions and future child behavior (Mantymaa et al., 2006). Importantly, caregiver’s perceptions of infant negativity and positivity may precede the observation of said characteristics, potentially shaping the infant’s developing temperament (Pauli-Pott et al., 2003). Here, we examine mother-infant dyads (N=149) to study interrelatedness of early maternal depression, anxiety, and stress with infant emotional development. We hypothesized that mothers who report increased stress and adversity will report increased negativity and decreased positivity in their infants.

Maternal measures of depression, anxiety, and stress are collected at 28 and 35 weeks of gestation, and then at 1, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of child age. Mother reported infant positivity and negativity measures are collected at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months (using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised and Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire). Data collection, scoring, and quality control procedures have all been completed.

Crucially for the project, 61 mothers have a lifetime diagnosis of depression or anxiety. Diagnoses include major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. maternal self-reported depression/anxiety symptoms were significantly related to infant emotionality across timepoints (Table 1), such that mothers with higher depression/anxiety rate their children as more negative and less positive, with the correlations with negativity being somewhat stronger and more consistent than with positivity. In addition, repeated measures ANOVA comparing mothers with a lifetime diagnosis of depression to those without indicate that mothers with a history of depression report lower infant positivity (F(3,109)=2.85, p=.041) and higher negative emotionality (F(3,109)=3.51, p=.018) across time than mothers without a diagnosis (Figure 1).

Results suggest that mothers experiencing more stressors and adversity 1) have children who are more temperamentally negative, or 2) may perceive their infants as more negative and less positive. Additionally, these relations appear to persist across the first two years of life. Future research will incorporate highly structured laboratory assessments assessing child positivity and negativity (Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery; Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1999) and a mother-child dyadic interaction task (Still-Face Paradigm; Tronick et al., 1978) to further elucidate the transactional and bidirectional nature of maternal adversity on both child temperamental factors and mother-infant interaction.

Authors

• Kristin Dowe, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth M. Planalp, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• Richard J Davidson, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author

• H Hill Goldsmith, University of Wisconsin - Madison
  Non-Presenting Author