Intergenerational transmission of affective and cognitive processes associated with depression: infancy and the pre-school years

Abstract

Abstract This chapter focuses on the development of infants and pre-school children of women who experience depression in the postnatal months, and seeks to address a number of questions. First, we consider whether there is, in fact, evidence for adverse infant and child outcome that is associated specifically with maternal depression occurring in the postpartum period. Central to this issue is the question of the role of moderating influences; that is, whether any risks to child outcome that are associated with postnatal depression occur regardless of the context in which the maternal affective disorder occurs, or whether adverse outcomes associated with postnatal depression arise only in particular circumstances. Given the quasi-epidemiological nature of this initial question, it is important that studies from high and low risk samples are considered, with a focus on those that have employed representative community samples rather than ones that are clinic-based. Second, having addressed the question of whether postnatal depression is a risk factor for adverse child outcome, we consider what the mechanisms might be whereby such outcome associated with postpartum depression comes about.