University of California, Irvine, USA.
J Health Soc Behav. 2011 Sep;52(3):314-32. doi: 10.1177/0022146511408096.
An increasing body of literature documents considerable inequalities in the health of young children in the United States, though maternal depression is one important, yet often overlooked, determinant of children's health. In this article, the author uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4,048) and finds that maternal depression, particularly recurrent or chronic depression, puts children at risk of having unfavorable health when they are five years old. This finding persists despite adjusting for a host of demographic characteristics of the mothers and children (including children's prior health) and is consistent across multiple health outcomes. Family instability, maternal health, and socioeconomic status account for the association between maternal depression and children's health. Given that poor childhood health may lead to poor health and low socioeconomic status in adulthood, maternal depression may contribute to the intergenerational transmission of inequality.
越来越多的文献资料表明，美国幼儿的健康存在相当大的不平等现象，尽管母亲抑郁是儿童健康的一个重要但常常被忽视的决定因素。在本文中，作者使用了脆弱家庭和儿童福利研究（N=4048）的数据，发现母亲抑郁，特别是反复发作或慢性抑郁，使儿童在五岁时面临健康不良的风险。尽管调整了母亲和儿童的许多人口特征（包括儿童先前的健康状况），这一发现仍然存在，而且在多种健康结果中都是一致的。家庭不稳定、母亲健康和社会经济地位解释了母亲抑郁与儿童健康之间的关系。鉴于儿童时期健康状况不佳可能导致成年后健康状况不佳和社会经济地位低下，母亲抑郁可能导致不平等的代际传递。
