An exploration of the relationships among postpartum depression, anxiety, maternal sensitivity, parenting stress, and infant development

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a serious mental illness affecting approximately 13% of all new mothers (Leahy-Warren & McCarthy, 2007). It is well documented that PPD is associated with myriad adverse outcomes for the mother and her infant. There are great concerns for the infant, including developmental delays (Field, 1992). Moreover, there is a high concordance rate between PPD and anxiety (Brockington, Macdonald et al., 2006), and there is increasing evidence that co-morbid anxiety may be a significant feature in PPD (Brockington et al., 2006; Misri et al., 2000; Stuart et al., 1998; Thompson et al., 1998). While PPD has been repeatedly shown to affect maternal behaviors and to be associated with poorer infant outcomes, there is little research about the parenting behaviors of mothers with PPD with co-morbid anxious symptoms. Participants were 38 mothers (age 22--40 years) and their infants (age 8--24 months). Half of the infants were males. Seventy-one percent of mothers were Caucasian, 76% were married, and 66% achieved a Bachelor's degree or higher level of education. Mothers were assessed with self-report measures for depression, anxiety, and parenting stress, and mother-infant interactions were recorded and rated using the Interaction Rating Scales (Field, 1980b). Infant development was assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-III (Bayley, 2005). The results of the present study showed that postpartum depression was associated with infant language development ( r = -.40, p = .01) while it was not associated with infant cognitive development (r = -.11, p = .51). Bivariate correlations showed that state anxiety was negatively associated with infant language development (r = -.40, p = .01), parenting stress was negatively correlated with language development (r = -.43, p = .01), maternal sensitivity was positively associated with language development (r = .42, p = .01). Maternal sensitivity was the only variable that was correlated with cognitive development (r = .34, p = .04). The results of the present study suggest that maternal postpartum depression may adversely impact infant language development. Contrary to the findings of previous research, the results of this study indicate that infants of mildly to moderately depressed mothers may not be at risk for cognitive development.