Persistence of Maternal Depressive Symptoms throughout the Early Years of Childhood

Abstract

Aims: The purpose of these analyses was to examine the persistence and predictors of elevated depressive symptoms in 884 women over their children's preschool years.

Results: Depressive symptoms in women with young children are surprisingly consistent throughout their children's preschool years. Of the 82.6% of women without elevated depressive symptoms at the initial assessment (study child was 11-42 months of age), 82.4% remained without symptoms over two follow-up assessments. Of 17.4% of women with elevated symptoms at baseline, 35.6% had elevated symptoms at one of the two follow-ups, and 27.4% had elevated symptoms at both follow-ups. Persistently elevated depressive symptoms were related to low education, high levels of anxiety, high parenting distress, and low levels of emotional support at baseline.

Conclusions: Women who report symptoms of depression when their children are young are highly likely to continue to report such symptoms. These results support the need to screen for elevated depressive symptoms at varying intervals depending on prior screening results and for screening in locations where women most at risk routinely visit, such as well-child clinics. Further, these results point to the need for a system to identify and manage this common treatable condition because these elevated symptoms continue throughout their children's preschool years for a substantial portion of women.

Figures

FIG. 1.

Elevated depressive symptoms on the CES-D over the three assessments.