Speaking of State of Mind: Maternal Mental Health Predicts Children's Home Language Environment and Expressive Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Brandon Neil CLIFFORD ◽  
Laura A. STOCKDALE ◽  
Sarah M. COYNE ◽  
Vanessa RAINEY ◽  
Viridiana L. BENITEZ

Abstract Maternal depression and anxiety are potential risk factors to children's language environments and development. Though existing work has examined relations between these constructs, further work is needed accounting for both depression and anxiety and using more direct measures of the home language environment and children's language development. We examined 265 mother-infant dyads (49.6% female, Mage = 17.03 months) from a large city in the Western United States to explore the relations between self-reports of maternal depression and anxiety and observational indices of the home language environment and expressive language as captured by Language Environment Analysis (LENA) and parent-reported language comprehension and production. Results revealed maternal depressive symptoms to be negatively associated with home language environment and expressive language indices. Maternal anxiety symptoms were found to be negatively associated with children's parent-reported language production. These findings provide further evidence that maternal mental health modulates children's home language environments and expressive language.


2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Brookman ◽  
Marina Kalashnikova ◽  
Janet Conti ◽  
Nan Xu Rattanasone ◽  
Kerry‐Ann Grant ◽  
...  




Author(s):  
Mohammad Effatpanah ◽  
Reza Rezaee-Taheri ◽  
Saeedreza Jamali Moghadam Siyahkali ◽  
Omid Dadras ◽  
Elahe Abedi-Taleb ◽  
...  

Background and purpose: Maternal depression and anxiety can cause nutritional problems in offspring. Despite the numerous literature, the knowledge regarding the impact of maternal mental health on child’s eating disorder is still limited. This study explored the impact of maternal depression and anxiety on eating disorders among children aged 6 to 36 months in Tehran, Iran.Material and Methods: A total number of 320 children aged 6 to 36 months old and their mothers were enrolled at a teaching university hospital in Tehran (Ziaeian Hospital). To collect the data, the inventory of problematic eating behaviors for 36-month old children, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) questionnaire, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) questionnaire, and demographic information questionnaire were used. To examine the relationship between maternal depression and anxiety with childhood feeding problems, bivariate (Chi-square) and multivariate (logistic regression) analyses were employed.Results: The mean mothers’ depression and anxiety scores were found to be 15.97 (SD = 12.08) and 14.26 (SD = 11.87), respectively. An estimated 23.8 % of children were suffering from eating disorders. There was a significant association between the mother’s severe depression and child’s eating disorder [OR = 5.7; CI (95%) = 2.92-11.43]. Although this association attenuated for the moderate level of depression in mothers, it was still statistically significant [OR= 2.25; CI (95%) = 1.05-4.8]. There was also a significant association between the moderate level of anxiety in mother and child’s eating disorder [OR = 2.17; CI (95%) = 1.15-4.10].Conclusion: It appeared that the children of mothers with higher levels of depression experienced more eating disorders during childhood. Furthermore, middle maternal anxiety level was associated with more feeding abnormalities in children. Therefore, screening and addressing the mental health issues in mothers at the early stages could prevent from future eating disorders in offspring.



Author(s):  
Yue Ma ◽  
Laura Jonsson ◽  
Tianli Feng ◽  
Tyler Weisberg ◽  
Teresa Shao ◽  
...  

The home language environment is critical to early language development and subsequent skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment in low-income, developing settings. This study explores variations in the home language environment and child language skills among households in poor rural villages in northwestern China. Audio recordings were collected for 38 children aged 20–28 months and analyzed using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) software; language skills were measured using the MacArthur–Bates Mandarin Communicative Developmental Inventories expressive vocabulary scale. The results revealed large variability in both child language skills and home language environment measures (adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations) with 5- to 6-fold differences between the highest and lowest scores. Despite variation, however, the average number of adult words and conversational turns were lower than found among urban Chinese children. Correlation analyses did not identify significant correlations between demographic characteristics and the home language environment. However, the results do indicate significant correlations between the home language environment and child language skills, with conversational turns showing the strongest correlation. The results point to a need for further research on language engagement and ways to increase parent–child interactions to improve early language development among young children in rural China.



BJPsych Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 300-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fay Huntley ◽  
Nicola Wright ◽  
Andrew Pickles ◽  
Helen Sharp ◽  
Jonathan Hill

BackgroundIt is not known whether associations between child problem behaviours and maternal depression can be accounted for by comorbid borderline personality disorder (BPD) dysfunction.AimTo examine the contributions of maternal depression and BPD symptoms to child problem behaviours.MethodDepression trajectories over the fist-year postpartum were generated using repeated measurement from a general population sample of 997 mothers recruited in pregnancy. In a stratified subsample of 251, maternal depression and BPD symptoms were examined as predictors of child problem behaviours at 2.5 years.ResultsChild problem behaviours were predicted by a high maternal depression trajectory prior to the inclusion of BPD symptoms. This association was no longer significant after the introduction of BPD symptoms.ConclusionsRisks for child problem behaviours currently attributed to maternal depression may arise from more persistent and pervasive difficulties found in borderline personality dysfunction.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Racine ◽  
Rachel Eirich ◽  
Jessica Cookee ◽  
Jenney Zhu ◽  
Paolo Pador ◽  
...  

Parents have experienced considerable challenges and stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may impact their well-being. This meta-analysis sought to identify: 1) the prevalence of depression and anxiety in parents of young children (< age 5) during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2) sociodemographic (e.g., parent age, minority status) and methodological moderators (e.g., study quality) that explain heterogeneity among studies. A systematic search was conducted across four databases from January 1st, 2020 to March 3st, 2021. A total of 18 non-overlapping studies (9,101 participants), all focused on maternal mental health, met inclusion criteria. Random-effect meta-analyses were conducted. Pooled prevalence estimates for clinically significant depression and anxiety symptoms for mothers of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic were 27.4% (95% CI: 21.5-34.3) and 43.5% (95% CI:27.5-60.9), respectively. Prevalence of clinically elevated depression and anxiety symptoms were higher in Europe and North America and among older mothers. Clinically elevated depressive symptoms were lower in studies with a higher percentage of racial and ethnic minority individuals. In comparison, clinically elevated anxiety symptoms were higher among studies of low study quality and in samples with highly educated mothers. Policies and resources targeting improvements in maternal mental health are essential.



2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Letourneau ◽  
D. Dewey ◽  
B. J. Kaplan ◽  
H. Ntanda ◽  
J. Novick ◽  
...  

AbstractAdverse childhood experiences (ACEs) of parents are associated with a variety of negative health outcomes in offspring. Little is known about the mechanisms by which ACEs are transmitted to the next generation. Given that maternal depression and anxiety are related to ACEs and negatively affect children’s behaviour, these exposures may be pathways between maternal ACEs and child psychopathology. Child sex may modify these associations. Our objectives were to determine: (1) the association between ACEs and children’s behaviour, (2) whether maternal symptoms of prenatal and postnatal depression and anxiety mediate the relationship between maternal ACEs and children’s behaviour, and (3) whether these relationships are moderated by child sex. Pearson correlations and latent path analyses were undertaken using data from 907 children and their mothers enrolled the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition study. Overall, maternal ACEs were associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression during the perinatal period, and externalizing problems in children. Furthermore, we observed indirect associations between maternal ACEs and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems via maternal anxiety and depression. Sex differences were observed, with boys demonstrating greater vulnerability to the indirect effects of maternal ACEs via both anxiety and depression. Findings suggest that maternal mental health may be a mechanism by which maternal early life adversity is transmitted to children, especially boys. Further research is needed to determine if targeted interventions with women who have both high ACEs and mental health problems can prevent or ameliorate the effects of ACEs on children’s behavioural psychopathology.



2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Richards ◽  
Jill Gilkerson ◽  
Dongxin Xu ◽  
Keith Topping

This study investigated whether parent perceptions of their own and their child’s levels of talkativeness were related to objective measures recorded via the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) System. Parents of 258 children aged 7 to 60 months completed a questionnaire on which they rated how much they and their child talked. Six months previously, they had recorded in their home language environment using the LENA System. Compared with recording measures, parents tended to overestimate how much they talk to their child, but were somewhat closer when estimating their child’s talkativeness. Results were similar for a smaller sample with concurrent recordings, indicating that calibration of talk volubility is challenging without a reference standard. An important implication is that parents’ motivation to participate in language-focused interventions may be reduced. That is, parents who overestimate how much they talk to their child may also underestimate what they could do to enhance their child’s home language environment.



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