Research Publication: Postnatal Trajectories of Maternal Depressive Symptoms - Postpartum Antecedents and Differences in Toddler Adjustment

Daniel Choe, Ph.D., and Amanda Lawrence, Ph.D., published an article in Infant Mental Health Journal with Susan McDonough, Ph.D., and Arnold Sameroff, Ph.D., at the University of Michigan. This longitudinal study of 235 mostly middle-class mothers and infants in southeast Michigan collected data from families when children were 7 months, 15 months, and 33 months old in the early 2000’s. The results show mothers’ parenting stress and social support at 7 months in infancy predict the postnatal course of their depressive symptoms throughout early childhood, and that their heightened or worsening depressive symptoms predict more behavior problems and worse vocabulary skills in their toddlers than toddlers whose mothers had few depressive symptoms in early childhood. Click here to freely access a pre-print version of the research article.