Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T13:23:02.818Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Maternal depression symptoms, unhealthy diet and child emotional–behavioural dysregulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2014

L. Pina-Camacho ,
S. K. Jensen ,
D. Gaysina  and
E. D. Barker
L. Pina-Camacho
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK CIBERSAM, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, Madrid, Spain
S. K. Jensen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
D. Gaysina
Affiliation:
Rudd Centre for Adoption Research and Practice, School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
E. D. Barker*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
*
*Address for correspondence: Edward D. Barker, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Maternal depression and unhealthy diet are well-known risk factors for adverse child emotional–behavioural outcomes, but their developmental relationships during the prenatal and postnatal periods are largely uncharted. This study sought to examine the inter-relationships between maternal depression symptoms and unhealthy diet (assessed during pregnancy and postnatal periods) in relation to child emotional–behavioural dysregulation (assessed at the ages of 2, 4 and 7 years).

Method

In a large prospective birth cohort of 7814 mother–child pairs, path analysis was used to examine the independent and inter-related associations of maternal depression symptoms and unhealthy diet with child dysregulation.

Results

Higher prenatal maternal depression symptoms were prospectively associated with higher unhealthy diet, both during pregnancy and the postnatal period, which, in turn, was associated with higher child dysregulation up to the age of 7 years. In addition, during pregnancy, higher maternal depression symptoms and unhealthy diet were each independently associated with higher child dysregulation up to the age of 7 years. These results were robust to other prenatal, perinatal and postnatal confounders (such as parity and birth complications, poverty, maternal education, etc.).

Conclusions

Maternal depression symptoms and unhealthy diet show important developmental associations, but are also independent risk factors for abnormal child development.

Keywords

ALSPACchild emotional–behavioural dysregulationmaternal depressionnutritionpregnancy
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 45 , Issue 9 , July 2015 , pp. 1851 - 1860
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akbaraly T, N, Brunner, EJ, Ferrie, JE, Marmot, MG, Kivimaki, M, Singh-Manoux, A (2009). Dietary pattern and depressive symptoms in middle age. British Journal of Psychiatry 195, 408–413.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Akbaraly, TN, Sabia, S, Shipley, MJ, Batty, GD, Kivimaki, M (2013). Adherence to healthy dietary guidelines and future depressive symptoms: evidence for sex differentials in the Whitehall II Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 97, 419–427.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edn. American Psychiatric Association: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Barker, ED (2013). The duration and timing of maternal depression as a moderator of the relationship between dependent interpersonal stress, contextual risk and early child dysregulation. Psychological Medicine 43, 1587–1596.Google Scholar
Barker, ED, Copeland, W, Maughan, B, Jaffee, SR, Uher, R (2012). Relative impact of maternal depression and associated risk factors on offspring psychopathology. British Journal of Psychiatry 200, 124–129.Google Scholar
Barker, ED, Kirkham, N, Ng, J, Jensen, SK (2013). Prenatal maternal depression symptoms and nutrition, and child cognitive function. British Journal of Psychiatry 203, 417–421.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bentler, PM (1990). Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychological Bulletin 107, 238–246.Google Scholar
Boyd, A, Golding, J, Macleod, J, Lawlor, DA, Fraser, A, Henderson, J, Molloy, L, Ness, A, Ring, S, Davey Smith, G (2013). Cohort profile: the ‘Children of the 90s’ – the index offspring of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. International Journal of Epidemiology 42, 111–127.Google Scholar
Braveman, P, Marchi, K, Egerter, S, Kim, S, Metzler, M, Stancil, T, Libet, M (2010). Poverty, near-poverty, and hardship around the time of pregnancy. Maternal and Child Health Journal 14, 20–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Browne, MW, Cudeck, R (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In Testing Structural Equation Models (ed. Bollen, K. A. and Long, J. S.), pp. 230–258. Sage: Newbury Park, CA.Google Scholar
Campbell, SB, Matestic, P, von Stauffenberg, C, Mohan, R, Kirchner, T (2007). Trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms, maternal sensitivity, and children's functioning at school entry. Developmental Psychology 43, 1202–1215.Google Scholar
Carey, WB, McDevitt, SC (1978). Revision of the Infant Temperament Questionnaire. Pediatrics 61, 735–739.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, JL, Holden, JM, Sagovsky, R (1987). Detection of postnatal depression: the development of the Edinburgh 10-item Postnatal Depression Scale. British Journal of Psychiatry 150, 782–786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elam, KK, Harold, GT, Neiderhiser, JM, Reiss, D, Shaw, DS, Natsuaki, MN, Gaysina, D, Barrett, D, Leve, LD (2014). Adoptive parent hostility and children's peer behavior problems: examining the role of genetically informed child attributes on adoptive parent behavior. Developmental Psychology 50, 1543–1552.Google Scholar
Fraser, A, Macdonald-Wallis, C, Tilling, K, Boyd, A, Golding, J, Davey Smith, G, Henderson, J, Macleod, J, Molloy, L, Ness, A, Ring, S, Nelson, SM, Lawlor, DA (2013). Cohort profile: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children: ALSPAC mothers cohort. International Journal of Epidemiology 42, 97–110.Google Scholar
Glover, V, O'Connor, TG, O'Donnell, K (2010). Prenatal stress and the programming of the HPA axis. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 35, 17–22.Google Scholar
Goodman, R (2001). Psychometric properties of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 40, 1337–1345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, SH, Gotlib, IH (1999). Risk for psychopathology in the children of depressed mothers: a developmental model for understanding mechanisms of transmission. Psychological Review 106, 458–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, SH, Rouse, MH, Connell, AM, Broth, MR, Hall, CM, Heyward, D (2011). Maternal depression and child psychopathology: a meta-analytic review. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review 14, 1–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gow, RV, Vallee-Tourangeau, F, Crawford, MA, Taylor, E, Ghebremeskel, K, Bueno, AA, Hibbeln, JR, Sumich, A, Rubia, K (2013). Omega-3 fatty acids are inversely related to callous and unemotional traits in adolescent boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids 88, 411–418.Google Scholar
Hiza, HA, Casavale, KO, Guenther, PM, Davis, CA (2013). Diet quality of Americans differs by age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, and education level. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 113, 297–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurley, KM, Caulfield, LE, Sacco, LM, Costigan, KA, Dipietro, JA (2005). Psychosocial influences in dietary patterns during pregnancy. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 105, 963–966.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacka, FN, Ystrom, E, Brantsaeter, AL, Karevold, E, Roth, C, Haugen, M, Meltzer, HM, Schjolberg, S, Berk, M (2013). Maternal and early postnatal nutrition and mental health of offspring by age 5 years: a prospective cohort study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 52, 1038–1047.Google Scholar
Jensen, SK, Dumontheil, I, Barker, ED (2014). Developmental inter-relations between early maternal depression, contextual risks, and interpersonal stress, and their effect on later child cognitive functioning. Depression and Anxiety 31, 599–607.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Little, RJA, Rubin, DB (2002). Statistical Analysis with Missing Data, 2nd edn. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Liu, J, Raine, A, Venables, PH, Mednick, SA (2004). Malnutrition at age 3 years and externalizing behavior problems at ages 8, 11, and 17 years. American Journal of Psychiatry 161, 2005–2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monk, C, Georgieff, MK, Osterholm, EA (2013). Research review: maternal prenatal distress and poor nutrition – mutually influencing risk factors affecting infant neurocognitive development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 54, 115–130.Google Scholar
Moshfegh, AJ (2007). Research to advance understanding of the interrelationship of poverty and nutrition. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 107, 1882–1885.Google Scholar
Murray, L, Carothers, A (1990). The validation of the Edinburgh Post-natal Depression Scale on a community sample. British Journal of Psychiatry 157, 288–290.Google Scholar
Muthén, LK, Muthén, BO (1998–2013). Mplus. Statistical Analyses with Latent Variables. User's Guide. Muthén & Muthén: Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Nyaradi, A, Li, J, Hickling, S, Foster, J, Oddy, WH (2013). The role of nutrition in children's neurocognitive development, from pregnancy through childhood. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 7, 97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1991). Standard Occupational Classification, vol. 3. HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Pachter, LM, Auinger, P, Palmer, R, Weitzman, M (2006). Do parenting and the home environment, maternal depression, neighborhood, and chronic poverty affect child behavioral problems differently in different racial–ethnic groups? Pediatrics 117, 1329–1338.Google Scholar
Raine, A, Mellingen, K, Liu, J, Venables, P, Mednick, SA (2003). Effects of environmental enrichment at ages 3–5 years on schizotypal personality and antisocial behavior at ages 17 and 23 years. American Journal of Psychiatry 160, 1627–1635.Google Scholar
Rao, TS, Asha, MR, Ramesh, BN, Rao, KS (2008). Understanding nutrition, depression and mental illnesses. Indian Journal of Psychiatry 50, 77–82.Google Scholar
Rechenberg, K, Humphries, D (2013). Nutritional interventions in depression and perinatal depression. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 86, 127–137.Google Scholar
Rogers, I, Emmett, P (1998). Diet during pregnancy in a population of pregnant women in South West England. ALSPAC Study Team. Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 52, 246–250.Google Scholar
Scott, D, Happell, B (2011). The high prevalence of poor physical health and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours in individuals with severe mental illness. Issues in Mental Health Nursing 32, 589–597.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Silberg, J, Rutter, M (2002). Nature–nurture interplay in the risks associated with parental depression. In Children of Depressed Parents: Mechanisms of Risk and Implications for Treatment (ed. Goodman, S. H. and Gotlib, I. H.), pp. 13–36. American Psychological Association: Washington, DC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, EL, Grayson, B, Takahashi, D, Robertson, N, Maier, A, Bethea, CL, Smith, MS, Coleman, K, Grove, KL (2010). Chronic consumption of a high-fat diet during pregnancy causes perturbations in the serotonergic system and increased anxiety-like behavior in nonhuman primate offspring. Journal of Neuroscience 30, 3826–3830.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vucetic, Z, Kimmel, J, Totoki, K, Hollenbeck, E, Reyes, TM (2010). Maternal high-fat diet alters methylation and gene expression of dopamine and opioid-related genes. Endocrinology 151, 4756–4764.Google Scholar
Weinstock, M (2008). The long-term behavioural consequences of prenatal stress. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 32, 1073–1086.Google Scholar
Wu, A, Molteni, R, Ying, Z, Gomez-Pinilla, F (2003). A saturated-fat diet aggravates the outcome of traumatic brain injury on hippocampal plasticity and cognitive function by reducing brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Neuroscience 119, 365–375.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Pina-Camacho Supplementary Material

Table S1

Download Pina-Camacho Supplementary Material(File)
File 78.8 KB