Correlates of Depression in Mothers of Young Children

Maternal depressed mood and stress as related to vigilance, self‐efficacy and mother‐child interactions

“…It is unclear why the dysphoric mothers displayed low self-efficacy in their absolute ratings of their parenting ability but not in their comparisons of themselves with other mothers, since both scales were reliable and assessed exactly the same set of parenting skills. In contrast, clinically depressed mothers have reported below-average self-efficacy ratings on both absolute and comparison scales (Bromet and Cornely, 1984;McLean, 1976;Teti and Gelfand, 1991), which may indicate that more serious and pervasive self-efficacy deficits are associated with diagnosable mood disorder than with the dysphoric mood of the present sample. Alternatively, the stressed-dysphoric mothers in this study may have had a poor opinion of the parenting skills of other mothers as well as themselves.…”

“…Clinical depression tends to interfere with parenting ability in both cognitive and social domains. Depressed women denigrate their children and criticize their own parenting (Bromet and Cornely, 1984;McLean, 1976;Teti and Gelfand, 1991) and are less involved, communicative, affectionate, attentive, happy and skilled in interacting with their children than are non-depressed mothers (e.g. Cohler et al, 1976;Goodman and Brumley, 1990;Hops et al, 1987;Sameroff et al, 1983).…”

Maternal depression in three Latin American samples

“…In the UK, prevalence rates ranging from 25 % to 50 % have been reported (Ghodsian et al 1984;Moss and Lewis 1977;Richman 1977). Studies of US samples report rates ranging from 12 %-40 % (Bromet et al 1982;Bromet and Cornely 1984;Garrison and Earls 1983;Heneghan et al 1998;Kahn et al 1999). Kahn et al (1999) found that two-thirds of young mothers who brought their children for pediatric care reported health problems and 40% screened positive for depression; rates for depression varied by site from 33 % at an academic hospital outpatient program to 59 % at a community health center.…”

Young maternal age and depressive symptoms: results from the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey.

“…Child rearing during adolescence interrupts normal cognitive and developmental processes and is often accompanied by socioeconomic disadvantage, single motherhood, and lack of social support, factors related to depression among adult mothers. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The interrupted education and diminished career opportunities associated with adolescent childbearing may also lead to long-term financial instability and increased life stresses.9 '10 Small surveys have found rates of depressive symptoms to range from 53% to 67% among adolescent mothers and to be associated with age, unmarried status, lower education, and diminished social support.5"'l…”