UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

There has been literature presented that demonstrates the impact of maternal depression on children’s growth and development. We will see in this literature review some of the factors that hinder this development. For example, the lack of maternal sensitivity, which is lack of affection, responsiveness, and attention influences children’s social engagement, fear regulation, and cortisol levels. Other aspects of development that are impacted are cognitive, motor, and language development. This is important because most of what the mother does and how she portrays herself reflects onto the child. Maternal depression begins to impact child growth and development from the time the fetus is developing in the womb. However, it is also important to see how the infant is affected after they are born and how maternal sensitivity and emotional availability play a role in their development. The majority of participants in the different studies were mother-child dyads. Mothers were between the ages of 20 and 40 years and children under the age of 12 years. Women between 10 to 20 weeks of gestation were also recruited to assess how prenatal depression affected the fetus. Most common measures in the different studies consisted of structured clinical interviews for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-D) to diagnose mothers with Major Depressive Disorder. Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and Beck’s Depression Inventory were also used to determine the severity, occurrences, and the extent of the depression. Demographics of participants varied in socio-economic status and education.