Longitudinal study of maternal depressive symptoms and child well-being

Objective: To investigate whether prenatal, postnatal, and/or current mater nal depressive symptoms are associated with low level of psychosocial funct ioning or high level of emotional/behavioral problems in school-age childre n. Method: As part of a prospective longitudinal study, maternal depressive symptoms were screened with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale prena tally, postnatally, and when the children were 8 to 9 years old. The origin al sample of 349 mothers was collected in 1989-1990 in Tampere, Finland. Of the 270 mother-child pairs at the latest stage of the study in 1997-1998, 188 mother-child pairs participated and 147 were included. The associations between maternal depressive symptoms at different points in time and the l evel of children's psychosocial functioning and problems reported on the Ch ild Behavior Checklist and Teacher's Report Form were examined. Results: Ch ildren's low social competence and low adaptive functioning were associated with concurrent maternal depressive symptoms. Maternal postnatal depressiv e symptoms predicted low social competence. The presence of prenatal depres sive symptoms in the mother was a strong predictor of child's high external izing and total problem levels (odds ratio 3.1, 95% confidence interval 1.1 -8.9 and odds ratio 8.5, 95% confidence interval 2.7-26.6). Prenatal as wel l as recurrent maternal depressive symptoms were associated with the least favorable child outcome. Conclusions: Maternal depressive symptomatology at any time, especially prenatally, is a risk factor for the child's well-bei ng. This should be noted already in prenatal care. The timing and the recur rence of maternal depressive symptoms affect the outcome for the child.