Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Infant Behav Dev. 2021 Aug;64:101605. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101605. Epub 2021 Jul 3.
Antenatal depression is emerging as a potential risk factor for lower maternal sensitivity during postnatal mother-infant interactions. The present study investigated the relationship between both antenatal and postnatal depression and features of infant directed speech, a key indicator of maternal sensitivity during the first postnatal year.
Pregnant women with either a clinical diagnosis of Major Depressive disorder (MDD; n = 20) or a history of MDD (n = 26) and a control group (n = 34) were recruited to the study and followed up at two, six and twelve months postpartum. A free-play mother-infant interaction was recorded at each time-point and the lexical and syntactic complexity of the mothers' speech was measured from the transcript.
No significant group differences were observed at either two, six or twelve months. However, mediation analyses indicated that antenatal depression was indirectly associated with maternal syntactic complexity at two and twelve months through concurrent maternal depression scores.
The findings of this study are limited by its small sample size. The sample also comprised predominantly well-resourced women which limits the generalisability of the findings to wider or less advantaged populations.
This study contributes to the emerging evidence base concerning the impact of antenatal depression and postnatal depression on early mother-infant interactive behaviour, specifically infant-directed speech. These findings further highlight the importance of identifying women with antenatal depression in order to support them to engage in therapeutic interventions at the earliest possible opportunity.
产前抑郁正成为产后母婴互动中母亲敏感性降低的一个潜在风险因素。本研究调查了产前和产后抑郁与婴儿导向言语特征之间的关系，婴儿导向言语是产后第一年母亲敏感性的一个关键指标。
本研究招募了 20 名患有重度抑郁症（MDD）的孕妇和 26 名有 MDD 病史的孕妇以及 34 名对照组孕妇，并在产后 2、6 和 12 个月进行随访。在每个时间点记录一次自由玩耍的母婴互动，从转录本中测量母亲言语的词汇和句法复杂性。
在 2、6 或 12 个月时，组间没有显著差异。然而，中介分析表明，产前抑郁通过同期的母亲抑郁评分，间接与母亲在 2 个月和 12 个月时的句法复杂性相关。
本研究的发现受到其小样本量的限制。该样本还主要由资源丰富的女性组成，这限制了研究结果在更广泛或弱势群体中的普遍性。
本研究为产前抑郁和产后抑郁对早期母婴互动行为（特别是婴儿导向言语）的影响的新兴证据基础做出了贡献。这些发现进一步强调了识别产前抑郁女性的重要性，以便为她们提供支持，使她们能够尽早接受治疗干预。
