Research Publication: Latent class analysis of maternal depression from pregnancy through early childhood - Differences in children’s executive functions

This study shows mothers in the United Kingdom who reported clinically significant depressive symptoms throughout pregnancy, infancy, and toddlerhood had children who performed worst on measures of inhibition during the elementary school years. Inhibition is a key executive function that supports self-regulation, such as emotion regulation and impulse control. The children of mothers who never reported clinical depression or only within the prenatal, postpartum (birth to 1 year old), or postnatal (1 to 3 years old) periods of development did not differ in their performance on measures of inhibition.

Choe, D. E., Deer, L. K., & Hastings, P. D. (in press). Latent class analysis of maternal depression from pregnancy through early childhood: Differences in children’s executive functions. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001540