Table 12.
Characteristics of the studies included in the evaluation of child emotional development.
| First author’s name | Sociodemographic data: 1. Country 2. Maternal mean age 3. Gender of newborn |
Sample size | Design: 1. Study design 2. Time of follow-up 3. Number of groups 4. Description of groups |
Tool used to assess PPD | Prevalence of PPD | Outcomes | Main results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ali94 | Pakistan Mean age: 26.3 years Female babies: 48.8% |
420 | Cohort study 30 months Two groups: - PPD - No PPD |
AKUADS | 1 month: 4.8% 2 months: 4.7% 6 months: 5.7% 12 months: 9.2% 18 months: 2.7% 24 months: 6.1% |
Delayed gross motor, fine motor, emotional, cognitive, and language development | When other variables were adjusted in the model, maternal depression placed children at an approximately six-fold risk of delayed emotional development (adjusted OR = 5.9, 95% CI = 3.0, 11.9). |
| Feldman115 | Israel Mean age: 30.7 ± 3.4 years Female babies: 47.0% |
100 | Cohort study 9 months Two groups: - PPD - No PPD |
BDI-II | 22.0% | Child social engagement; fear regulation; cortisol reactivity; behavior | The infants of depressed mothers scored the worst on all outcomes at 9 months. More negative emotionality and the highest cortisol reactivity were noted in anxious dyads, which received lower scores for maternal sensitivity and infant social engagement than the controls. |
| Koutra95 | Crete Mean age: 30.09 ± 4.53 years Female babies: 45.5% |
470 | Cohort study 18 months Two groups: - PPD - No PPD |
EPDS (Depressed = EPDS ⩾ 13) |
Not given | Fine motor, gross motor, cognitive, and social-emotional development; receptive and expressive communication | Postpartum depressive symptoms were not associated with children’s social-emotional development at age 18 months. |
| Moehler121 | Germany Age: 33.3 years Female babies: 44.6% |
101 | Cohort study 14 months Two groups: - PPD - No PPD |
EPDS (Depressed = EPDS > 9) |
Not given | Infant’s fear score; behavioral inhibition | Postpartum depression at 4 months, as measured by the EPDS, was strongly associated with the fear score and behavioral inhibition of toddlers at 14 months. Mothers with low depression and anxiety at 6 weeks and high depression at 4 months postpartum had children with significantly higher fear scores than women with decreasing or stable depressive symptomatology between the 6-week and 4-month period. |
| Walker96 | Canada Age (years): 25–34: 68.4% 15–24: 18.8% ⩾35: 12.8% Female babies: 49.2% |
1452 | Cohort study 5 years Two groups: - PPD - No PPD |
Specific to the survey | 8.4% in the year following birth of the child; 8.3% when the child was 2–3 years of age. | Hyperactivity inattention; emotional disorder-anxiety; physical aggression-opposition; separation anxiety | PPD was not significantly associated with most child behavioral or emotional outcomes. However, children of mothers who had PPD were 2.61 times more likely to display high degrees of emotional disorder in the form of anxiety (OR = 2.61, 95% CI = 1.40, 4.86). PPD was not associated with separation anxiety (OR = 1.34, 95% CI = 0.75, 2.40). |
PPD: postpartum depression; AKUADS: Aga Khan University Anxiety and Depression Scale; BDI-II: Beck Depression Inventory-II; EPDS: Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; OR: odds ratio; CI: confidence interval.