Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Sep 1;5(9):e2232672. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.32672.
Language development builds on speech perception, with early disruptions increasing the risk for later language difficulties. Although a major postpartum depressive episode is associated with language development, this association has not been investigated among infants of mothers experiencing a depressed mood at subclinical levels after birth, even though such a mood is frequently present in the first weeks after birth. Understanding whether subclinical depressed maternal mood after birth is associated with early language development is important given opportunities of coping strategies for subclinical depressed mood.
To examine whether depressed maternal mood at subclinical levels 2 months after birth is associated with infant speech perception trajectories from ages 2 to 6.5 months.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: In this longitudinal cohort study conducted between January 1, 2018, and October 31, 2019, 46 healthy, monolingual German mother-infant dyads were tested. The sample was recruited from the infants database of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Initial statistical analysis was performed between January 1 and March 31, 2021; the moderation analysis (results reported herein) was conducted between July 1 and July 31, 2022.
Mothers reported postpartum mood via the German version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (higher scores indicated higher levels of depressed mood, with a cutoff of 13 points indicating a high probability of clinical depression) when their infants were 2 months old.
Electrophysiological correlates of infant speech perception (mismatch response to speech stimuli) were tested when the infants were aged 2 months (initial assessment) and 6.5 months (follow-up).
A total of 46 mothers (mean [SD] age, 32.1 [3.8] years) and their 2-month-old children (mean [SD] age, 9.6 [1.2] weeks; 23 girls and 23 boys) participated at the initial assessment, and 36 mothers (mean [SD] age, 32.2 [4.1] years) and their then 6.5-month-old children (mean [SD] age, 28.4 [1.5 weeks; 18 girls and 18 boys) participated at follow-up. Moderation analyses revealed that more depressed maternal subclinical postpartum mood (mean [SD] Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score, 4.8 [3.6]) was associated with weaker longitudinal changes of infants' electrophysiological brain responses to syllable pitch speech information from ages 2 to 6.5 months (coefficient: 0.68; 95% CI, 0.03-1.33; P = .04).
The results of this cohort study suggest that infant speech perception trajectories are correlated with subclinical depressed mood in postpartum mothers. This finding lays the groundwork for future research on early support for caregivers experiencing depressed mood to have a positive association with children's language development.
语言发展建立在言语感知的基础上，早期的障碍会增加日后语言困难的风险。尽管产后出现严重抑郁发作与语言发展有关，但对于产后出现亚临床抑郁情绪的母亲所生婴儿的语言发展，尚未对此进行调查，尽管这种情绪在产后最初几周经常出现。了解产后亚临床抑郁情绪是否与早期语言发展有关，这很重要，因为这为亚临床抑郁情绪提供了应对策略的机会。
研究产后 2 个月时亚临床水平的抑郁母亲情绪是否与婴儿从 2 个月到 6.5 个月的言语感知轨迹有关。
设计、设置和参与者：这是一项纵向队列研究，于 2018 年 1 月 1 日至 2019 年 10 月 31 日进行，共纳入 46 名健康的、讲德语的母婴二联体。样本是从马克斯·普朗克人类认知和脑科学研究所的婴儿数据库中招募的。最初的统计分析于 2021 年 1 月 1 日至 3 月 31 日进行；调节分析（本文报告的结果）于 2022 年 7 月 1 日至 7 月 31 日进行。
当婴儿 2 个月大时，母亲通过德国版爱丁堡产后抑郁量表（评分越高表示抑郁情绪越严重，得分 13 分表示高度可能患有临床抑郁症）报告产后情绪。
当婴儿 2 个月大（初始评估）和 6.5 个月大（随访）时，测试婴儿言语感知的电生理相关指标（对言语刺激的不匹配反应）。
共有 46 名母亲（平均[标准差]年龄，32.1[3.8]岁）和她们 2 个月大的孩子（平均[标准差]年龄，9.6[1.2]周；23 名女孩和 23 名男孩）参加了初始评估，36 名母亲（平均[标准差]年龄，32.2[4.1]岁）和她们当时 6.5 个月大的孩子（平均[标准差]年龄，28.4[1.5]周；18 名女孩和 18 名男孩）参加了随访。调节分析显示，母亲产后亚临床抑郁情绪越严重（爱丁堡产后抑郁量表平均[标准差]评分，4.8[3.6]），婴儿从 2 个月到 6.5 个月对音节音高言语信息的电生理大脑反应的纵向变化越弱（系数：0.68；95%置信区间，0.03-1.33；P=0.04）。
这项队列研究的结果表明，婴儿言语感知轨迹与产后亚临床抑郁母亲的情绪有关。这一发现为未来研究照顾者的早期支持奠定了基础，早期支持可以与儿童的语言发展产生积极的联系。
