The Biological Mechanism of Maternal Depression’s Negative Influences on Offspring Development: A Review

Maternal depression is a prevalent disorder among mothers: nearly 20% of women have experienced different levels of depressive symptoms during motherhood. The symptoms usually disappear by three years after their children were born, but some women experience them chronically. Maternal depression has been researched in terms of its negative influence on offspring since the 1960s. Children of chronically depressed mothers show delays in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development. Moreover, they may even face mental health challenges themselves. How does maternal depression influence offspring? Previous studies have focused on the behaviors of mothers and found that mothers with depression interact with their children in a less engaging way. Recently, more researchers started to pay attention to the biological mechanism of this maternal depression’s negative influence. Cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, is regarded as a potential pathway of the transgenerational transmission of depression. Mothers with prenatal depression have elevated cortisol level during pregnancy, which is passed down to their children. After they are born, children of depressed mothers react to stress with more dramatic changes in cortisol level and compromised stress-coping abilities. Moreover, prenatal maternal depression also seems to shape the functional connectivity of amygdala, a brain area related to stress and emotions. For life situations like schooling, competing with peers or making significant decisions, children with decreased or abnormal stress-coping abilities will be in disadvantageous positions. Attenuated stress coping abilities brought by hormonal and neural changes may be a biological mechanism for children’s lower performance in cognitive and behavioral tasks.

Depressed and Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Mothers’ Progression Into a Randomized Controlled Mobile Mental Health and Parenting Intervention: A Descriptive Examination Prior to and During COVID-19

Infants of low-income and depressed mothers are at high risk for poor developmental outcomes. Early parenting mediates infant experiences from birth, and early intervention can support sensitive and responsive parent practices that optimize infant outcomes via promoting developmental competencies. However, low-income and depressed mothers experience substantial challenges to participating in early intervention. They also have extremely limited access to interventions targeting depression. Interventions targeting maternal depression and parent practices can improve maternal and infant outcomes. Mobile internet-based interventions overcome numerous barriers that low-resource mothers face in accessing home-based interventions. Pandemic-related stressors likely reduce family resources and exacerbate distress of already heavily-burdened mother-infant dyads. During crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence-based remote coaching interventions are paramount. This article reports on a mobile intervention for improving maternal mood and increasing parent practices that promote infant development. An ongoing randomized controlled trial study provided a unique opportunity to monitor progression from referral to intervention initiation between two groups of depressed mothers: those prior to the pandemic and during the pandemic. The study also examines mother and infant characteristics at baseline. The sample consisted primarily of Black mothers experiencing extreme poverty who self-referred to the study in a large southern city, which is one of the most income disparate in the United States. Prior to the pandemic, 97% of study participants successfully progressed from consent to intervention, as compared to significantly fewer–86%–during the pandemic. Mother-infant dyads during COVID-19, as compared to those prior to COVID-19, displayed similar pre-intervention demographic characteristics and intrapersonal characteristics.

Translation of Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) In Urdu Language

Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) was widely used to measure the emotional thoughts of mothers towards the infant. Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire is helpful for the assessment of mother-infant bonding problems in mothers with postpartum depression. Therefore it is necessary to translated PBQ into Urdu language to make it understandable for Pakistani mothers. In the present study, Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) developed by Brockington et al. (2001) and revised by Brockington, Fraser and Wilson (2006) was translated for the assessment of mother-infant bonding problems in a sample of Pakistani postpartum mothers with postpartum depression. Four hundred postpartum mothers were screened on Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and 150 depressed mothers of age range 18 to 45 years were selected to participate in the study through purposive sampling technique. PBQ was translated into Urdu using Back-translation method of Brislin (1976). The alpha reliability coefficients for the subscales of Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire Urdu –version were ranged from .33 to .93. Findings also showed that PBQ has satisfactory internal validity. The PBQ Urdu-version would be very useful for identifying problems of the mother-infant bonding in mothers with postpartum depression. In the future researches PBQ Urdu-version would also be useful for the researchers working in the same area.

Infant emotion regulation strategy moderates the relation between maternal depressive symptomatology and infant HPA-Axis regulation

Children of depressed mothers often have atypical cortisol levels. Child characteristics associated with emotion regulation difficulties moderate associations between maternal depression and child hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity. We hypothesize that infants of more depressed mothers who utilize more independent emotion regulation will have higher cortisol levels. Mother-infant dyads (N = 193) were recruited from the community. Maternal depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory II, infant regulation strategies were coded during a Toy Frustration Task, and cortisol was collected at baseline, 20, and 40 minutes after two challenges (Toy Frustration and Strange Situation). Results indicate that infant emotion regulation moderates associations between maternal depressive symptoms and infant total cortisol output (AUCG) and cortisol reactivity (AUCI), during the Toy Frustration task. Infants who used more independent regulation had elevated cortisol secretion. Associations were not replicated during the Strange Situation procedure. Findings are discussed in terms of adaptive emotional and physiological regulation.

Infant emotion regulation strategy moderates the relation between maternal depressive symptomatology and infant HPA-Axis regulation

Children of depressed mothers often have atypical cortisol levels. Child characteristics associated with emotion regulation difficulties moderate associations between maternal depression and child hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity. We hypothesize that infants of more depressed mothers who utilize more independent emotion regulation will have higher cortisol levels. Mother-infant dyads (N = 193) were recruited from the community. Maternal depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory II, infant regulation strategies were coded during a Toy Frustration Task, and cortisol was collected at baseline, 20, and 40 minutes after two challenges (Toy Frustration and Strange Situation). Results indicate that infant emotion regulation moderates associations between maternal depressive symptoms and infant total cortisol output (AUCG) and cortisol reactivity (AUCI), during the Toy Frustration task. Infants who used more independent regulation had elevated cortisol secretion. Associations were not replicated during the Strange Situation procedure. Findings are discussed in terms of adaptive emotional and physiological regulation.

PROBLEM DIAGNOZOWANIA DEPRESJI U MATEK DZIECI Z ZESPOŁEM DOWNA

The article is devoted to an important social problem, which is the diagnosis of depression in mothers of children with Down syndrome. The article is of a research nature, based on factual interviews, and three case studies of depressed mothers who raise a child with Down syndrome were developed. In the course of the research, several important conclusions were found, including that the diagnosis of depression in the surveyed women resulted in a greater awareness of their own problems and difficulties in the respondents, allowed them to make changes in the direction of coping, search for their own resources and resources in the external environment to fight depression, and a change in family relationships. It was necessary to work out rules of cooperation between family members