Effects of Maternal Depression on Maternal Responsiveness and Infants' Expressive Language Abilities

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2023 Jan 11

PMID 36630343

Authors

Ruth Brookman

Marina Kalashnikova

Penny Levickis

Janet Conti

Nan Xu Rattanasone

Kerry-Ann Grant

Katherine Demuth

Denis Burnham

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

High levels of maternal responsiveness are associated with healthy cognitive and emotional development in infants. However, depression and anxiety can negatively impact individual mothers' responsiveness levels and infants' expressive language abilities. Australian mother-infant dyads (N = 48) participated in a longitudinal study examining the effect of maternal responsiveness (when infants were 9- and 12-months), and maternal depression and anxiety symptoms on infant vocabulary size at 18-months. Global maternal responsiveness ratings were stronger predictors of infants' vocabulary size than levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. However, depression levels moderated the effect of maternal responsiveness on vocabulary size. These results highlight the importance of screening for maternal responsiveness-in addition to depression-to identify infants who may be at developmental risk. Also, mothers with elevated depression need support to first reduce their symptoms so that improvements in their responsiveness have the potential to be protective for their infant's language acquisition.

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