What is it about?
The study is about the impact of maternal postnatal depression (PND) on child language development. Maternal PND symptoms were measured 3 times between 6 weeks and 6 months postpartum. Infants' communication skills were assessed by parents at 12 and 24 months. We also investigated if high PND symptom exposure affected child communication skills later, and whether PND symptoms at 6 weeks influenced changes in communication skills from 4 to 24 months.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Infants of mothers with high depression scores evinced less proficient communicative skills at 12 months as compared to those with mothers showing no evidence of depression. No such relation was found at 24 months.
Perspectives
Clinicians should observe that maternal postnatal depressive symptoms may be a risk factor for subsequent infant communication development.
Professor Lars Smith
University of Oslo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Association between maternal postnatal depressive symptoms and infants’ communication skills: A longitudinal study, Infant Behavior and Development, November 2016, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.10.001.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
