Table 1.
Sociodemographic and Health Characteristics of Biological Mothers at Initial Assessment According to Never, Intermittent, and Always Elevated Depressive Symptomsa
| Maternal sociodemographic characteristics at initial assessment | Always elevated (n = 38) | Intermittent (n = 223) | Never elevated (n = 623) | Overall p value | Always vs. intermittent | Always vs. never | Intermittent vs. never |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maternal age | 29.6 ± 7.9 | 30.8 ± 6.7 | 32.6 ± 5.8 | 0.0016 | 0.4313 | 0.0358 | 0.0019 |
| Age <18 when child was born | 2 (6.0%) | 9 (5.6%) | 21 (4.5%) | 0.8361 | – | – | – |
| Number of children in home | 2.14 ± 1.04 | 2.09 ± 1.08 | 2.07 ± 0.94 | 0.9184 | – | – | – |
| Education | |||||||
| < High school | 12 (36.6%) | 20 (13.1%) | 26 (6.6%) | <0.0001 | 0.0021 | <0.0001 | 0.0081 |
| High school /GED | 5 (13.7%) | 41 (20.2%) | 87 (15.5%) | ||||
| More than high school | 15 (38.0%) | 75 (33.4%) | 198 (32.0%) | ||||
| College degree | 6 (11.7%) | 87 (33.3%) | 312 (45.9%) | ||||
| Race/ethnicity | |||||||
| African American | 13 (44.2%) | 45 (31.3%) | 67 (15.0%) | <0.0001 | 0.1528 | <0.0001 | <0.0001 |
| Caucasian | 18 (37.1%) | 149 (55.5%) | 497 (74.4%) | ||||
| Other | 7 (18.7%) | 29 (13.2%) | 59 (10.7%) | ||||
| Employment status | |||||||
| Unemployed | 7 (22.7%) | 19 (12.8%) | 17 (3.6%) | <0.0001 | 0.3425 | <0.0001 | <0.0001 |
| Working/student (PT or FT) | 24 (60.6%) | 154 (67.0%) | 423 (67.3%) | ||||
| Homemaker | 7 (16.7%) | 50 (20.2%) | 182 (29.1%) | ||||
| Poverty status | |||||||
| Poverty | 20 (64.2%) | 45 (26.9%) | 68 (14.0%) | <0.0001 | <0.0001 | <0.0001 | <0.0001 |
| Borderline (100%–185%) | 6 (16.6%) | 36 (20.0%) | 72 (13.5%) | ||||
| Not in poverty | 10 (19.2%) | 140 (53.1%) | 478 (72.5%) | ||||
| Hard to pay bills | |||||||
| Hard | 18 (53.3%) | 61 (28.0%) | 97 (17.2%) | <0.0001 | 0.0018 | <0.0001 | 0.0049 |
| Not hard | 13 (29.5%) | 145 (62.7%) | 492 (76.5%) | ||||
| No answer | 7 (17.2%) | 17 (9.3%) | 34 (6.3%) | ||||
| Maternal mental physical health | |||||||
| Physical health | |||||||
| Poor or fair | 8 (19.2%) | 16 (8.2%) | 13 (2.1%) | <0.0001 | 0.0042 | <0.0001 | <0.0001 |
| Good | 19 (49.7%) | 56 (26.0%) | 90 (13.9%) | ||||
| Very good | 8 (22.1%) | 86 (38.7%) | 248 (41,1%) | ||||
| Excellent | 3 (9.0%) | 63 (27.1%) | 271 (42.9%) | ||||
| High anxiety: Beck | 11 (29.4%) | 13 (5.9%) | 11 (1.7%) | <0.0001 | <0.0001 | <0.0001 | 0.0016 |
| Anxiety Inventory ≥ 16 |
a
Unweighted counts and weighted column percentages shown.