Pearson Rebecca M, Bornstein Marc H, Cordero Miguel, Scerif Gaia, Mahedy Liam, Evans Jonathan, Abioye Abu, Stein Alan
School of Social & Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Section of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2016 Apr;57(4):491-501. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12483. Epub 2015 Nov 29.
Elucidating risk pathways for under-achieving at school can inform strategies to reduce the number of adolescents leaving school without passing grades in core subjects. Maternal depression can compromise the quality of parental care and is associated with multiple negative child outcomes. However, only a few small studies have investigated the association between perinatal maternal depression and poor academic achievement in adolescence. The pathways to explain the risks are also unclear.
Prospective observational data from 5,801 parents and adolescents taking part in a large UK population cohort (Avon-Longitudinal-Study-of-Parents-and-Children) were used to test associations between maternal and paternal depression and anxiety in the perinatal period, executive function (EF) at age 8, and academic achievement at the end of compulsory school at age 16.
Adolescents of postnatally depressed mothers were 1.5 times (1.19, 1.94, p = .001) as likely as adolescents of nondepressed mothers to fail to achieve a 'pass' grade in math; antenatal anxiety was also an independent predictor of poor math. Disruption in different components of EF explained small but significant proportions of these associations: attentional control explained 16% (4%, 27%, p < .001) of the association with postnatal depression, and working memory explained 17% (13%, 30%, p = .003) of the association with antenatal anxiety. A similar pattern was seen for language grades, but associations were confounded by maternal education. There was no evidence that paternal factors were independently associated with impaired child EF or adolescent exams.
Maternal postnatal depression and antenatal anxiety are risk factors for adolescents underachieving in math. Preventing, identifying, and treating maternal mental health in the perinatal period could, therefore, potentially increase adolescents' academic achievement. Different aspects of EF partially mediated these associations. Further work is needed, but if these pathways are causal, improving EF could reduce underachievement in math.
阐明学业成绩不佳的风险路径可为减少青少年未通过核心科目考试就离校的人数的策略提供依据。母亲抑郁会损害父母照顾的质量，并与儿童的多种负面结果相关。然而，只有少数小型研究调查了围产期母亲抑郁与青少年学业成绩不佳之间的关联。解释这些风险的路径也尚不清楚。
来自5801名参与英国大型人群队列研究（阿冯父母与儿童纵向研究）的父母和青少年的前瞻性观察数据，用于测试围产期母亲和父亲的抑郁与焦虑、8岁时的执行功能（EF）以及16岁义务教育结束时的学业成绩之间的关联。
产后抑郁母亲的青少年数学未能“及格”的可能性是未抑郁母亲的青少年的1.5倍（1.19, 1.94，p = 0.001）；产前焦虑也是数学成绩差的独立预测因素。EF不同组成部分的破坏解释了这些关联中的小但显著的比例：注意力控制解释了与产后抑郁关联的16%（4%，27%，p < 0.001），工作记忆解释了与产前焦虑关联的17%（13%，30%，p = 0.003）。语言成绩也有类似模式，但关联受到母亲教育程度的混淆。没有证据表明父亲因素与儿童EF受损或青少年考试成绩独立相关。
母亲产后抑郁和产前焦虑是青少年数学成绩不佳的风险因素。因此，在围产期预防、识别和治疗母亲的心理健康状况可能会提高青少年的学业成绩。EF的不同方面部分介导了这些关联。需要进一步的研究，但如果这些路径是因果关系，改善EF可能会减少数学成绩不佳的情况。
