Chronicity, severity, and timing of maternal depressive symptoms: Relationships with child outcomes at age 5

The relationships between severity, chronicity, and timing of maternal depr essive symptoms and child outcomes were examined in a cohort of 4,953 child ren. Mothers provided self-reports of depressive symptoms during pregnancy, immediately postpartum, and when the child was 6 months old and 5 years ol d. At the age 5 follow-up, mothers reported on children's behavior and chil dren completed a receptive vocabulary test. Results suggest that both the s everity and the chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms are related to m ore behavior problems and lower vocabulary scores in children. The interact ion of severity and chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms was signific antly related to higher levels of child behavior problems. Timing of matern al symptoms was not significantly related to child vocabulary scores, but m ore recent reports of maternal depressive symptoms were associated with hig her rates of child behavior problems.