Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T12:52:45.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Postnatal Depression and Child Development

A three-year follow-up study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

R. M. Wrate ,
A. C. Rooney ,
P. F. Thomas  and
J. L. Cox
R. M. Wrate*
Affiliation:
Royal Edinburgh Hospital; Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh
A. C. Rooney
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh
P. F. Thomas
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh
J. L. Cox
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This study investigates whether three-year-old children whose mothers had been depressed after their birth showed more behaviour disturbance than children of mothers who were not depressed at that time. Ninety-one of 103 mothers who took part in an earlier prospective study of postnatal depression were reinterviewed three years later to determine their present mental state, and to assess their child's behaviour, using Richman's Behavioural Screening Questionnaire.

No relationship was found between a prolonged postnatal depression and behaviour disturbance in the child, but children whose mothers had brief postnatal depressive episodes showed more behaviour disturbance than those whose mothers had not been depressed since childbirth.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 146 , Issue 6 , June 1985 , pp. 622 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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

Brown, G., Bhrolchain, Ni., & Harris, T. (1975) Social class and psychiatric disturbance among women in an urban population. Sociology, 9, 225–254.Google Scholar
Cox, J. L., Connor, Y. & Kendell, R. E. (1982) Prospective study of the psychiatric disorders of childbirth. British Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 112–118.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. & Eysenck, S. B. (1975) Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. London: Hodder and Stoughton.Google Scholar
Ghodsian, M., Zajicek, E. & Wolkind, S. (1984) A longitudinal study of maternal depression and child behaviour problems. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 25, 91–109.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P., Cooper, B., Eastwood, M. R., Kedward, H. B. & Shepherd, M. (1970) A standardised psychiatric interview for use in community surveys. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine, 24, 18–23.Google ScholarPubMed
Hinde, R. A. (1977) Mother-infant separation and the nature of inter-individual relationships: experiments with Rhesus monkeys. Proceedings of the Royal Society, 196, 29–50.Google ScholarPubMed
Hinde, R. A. & McGinnes, L. (1977) Some factors influencing the effects of temporary mother-infant separation: some experiments with Rhesus monkeys. Psychological Medicine, 7, 197–212.Google Scholar
Kendell, R. E., Rennie, D., Clark, J. D. & Dean, C. (1981) The social and obstetric correlates of psychiatric admission in the Puerperium. Psychological Medicine, 11, 341–350.Google Scholar
Kohut, H. (1971) The Analysis of the Self. Monograph number 4, The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child , New York: International University Press.Google Scholar
Kumar, R. & Robson, K. M. (1984) A prospective study of emotional disorders in childbearing women. British Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 35–47.Google Scholar
Littman, B. & Parmelee, A. H. (1978) Medical correlates of infant development. Paediatrics, 61, 470–474.Google Scholar
Pitt, B. (1968) ‘Atypical’ depression following childbirth. British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 1325–1329.Google Scholar
Pugh, T. F., Jerath, B. K., Schmidt, W. M. & Reed, R. B. (1963) Rates of mental diseases related to childbearing. New England Journal of Medicine, 268, 1224–1228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richman, N. & Graham, P. J. (1971) A behavioural screening questionnaire for use with three year old children: preliminary findings. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 12, 5–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richman, N. Stevenson, J. E. & Graham, P. J. (1975) Prevalence of behavioural problems in three year old children: an epidemiological study in a London borough. Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, 17, 75–78.Google Scholar
Richman, N. (1977) Behavioural problems in pre-school children: family and social factors. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 523–527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richman, N. Stevenson, J. & Graham, P. J. (1982) Preschool to school, London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Surtees, P. G., Dean, C., Ingham, J. G., Kreitman, N. B., Miller, P. McC. & Sashidharan, S. P. (1983) Psychiatric disorder in women from an Edinburgh community: associations with demographic factors. British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 238–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uddenberg, N. & Englesson, I. (1978) Prognosis of post-partum mental disturbance – a prospective study of primiparous women and their four and a half year old children. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1958, 201–212.Google Scholar
Weissman, M. M., Paykel, E. S. & Klerman, G. L. (1972) The depressed woman as mother. Social Psychiatry, 7, 98–108.Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1965) The role of maternal care. In The maturational process and the facilitating environment, London: International Psychoanalytic Library, Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.