Maternal depression effects on infants

• Autor(a) principal: Lowenstein, Marcy K.
• Data de Publicação: 1992
• Outros Autores: Field, Tiffany
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/2709

Infants are extremely vulnerable to learning maladaptive behaviors from their depressed mothers. Since a mother’s influence on her infant’s social development and interactional style begins at birth, it is important to investigate the developmental effects of both transient postpartum depression and chronic depression on the infant. This comprehensive review of the limited research available supports the theory that infants develop different interactional styles depending on their mother’s affect. The literature also suggests that a depressed maternal style is much more distressing to infants than physical unavailability. Pervasiveness of the infant’s depressed interactional style to other individuals regardless of their affect may be indicative of long-lasting social competencies. More research is needed to identify the salient influential features of a depressed mothering style on infant development as well as longitudinal studies to examine the impact of maternal depression on later development of social skills.