Dynamic Fluctuations in Perinatal Mood Symptoms Selectively Influence Infant Socioemotional Outcomes
Year: 2024
Type: preprint
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Children of depressed parents are up to 6 times more likely to develop a depressive disorder. Yet many children at familial risk for depression do not develop symptoms, potentially because clinical features of parental depression moderate intergenerational risk processes. The present study leverages person-centered analyses to test whether, as compared to absolute values, temporal dynamics of maternal depressive symptoms uniquely associate with two transdiagnostic risk processes in infants: stress reactivity and socioemotional development. Pregnant and postpartum women living in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic completed a remote longitudinal study. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed 3-6 times across the birth transition (N=368), infant stress reactivity was assessed via a remotely administered arm restraint task at 6 and 12 months postpartum (N=82), and infant socioemotional development was assessed via maternal report at 12 months (N=71). Multilevel growth modeling was used to estimate group-level trajectories of depressive symptoms across the birth transition and to disentangle depression severity from variation in symptoms over time. In the larger cohort, maternal depression worsened from birth to 5 months postpartum. Mothers with more unpredictable dynamics in depressive symptoms had infants who were less reactive during the arm restraint task. The association persisted after controlling for other depression features and across two independently derived unpredictability metrics. In contrast, postpartum depression severity demonstrated strongest associations with maternal-reported infant socioemotional development. Maternal perinatal depression is a heterogenous disorder, and different clinical characteristics of depression, particularly its temporal dynamics, may exert distinct influences on child development.
Source: PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints)
Institutions: NYU Langone Health, New York University
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4400002546