FACIAL EXPRESSIVITY IN INFANTS OF DEPRESSED MOTHERS

Facial expressions were examined in 84 3-month-old infants of mothers classified as depressed, nondepressed, or low scoring on the Beck Depr ession Inventory Mother-infant dyads were videotaped during a 3-min fa ce-to-face play interaction, and the videotapes were coded by using th e AFFEX facial expression coding system. Infants of both depressed and low-scoring mothers showed significantly more sadness and anger expre ssions and fewer interest expressions than infants of nondepressed mot hers.