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Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Participation in Early Intervention Services for Young Children

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Abstract

Many young children with developmental delay who are eligible for early intervention (EI) services fail to receive them. We assessed the relationship between depressive symptoms in mothers, a potentially modifiable risk, and receipt of EI services by their eligible children. We conducted multivariable analyses of a nationally representative sample of children eligible for EI services at 24 months using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed at 9 and 24 months. Birthweight <1,000 g, genetic and medical conditions associated with developmental delay, or low scores on measures of developmental performance defined EI eligibility. Service receipt was ascertained from parental self-report. Models were adjusted for sociodemographic and child risk. Among the 650 children who were eligible to receive EI services as infants, 33.2% of children whose mothers were depressed received services compared to 27.0% whose mothers were not depressed (aOR 1.8; 95% CI 0.8, 4.0). Among the 650 children who became eligible to receive services as toddlers, 13.0% of children whose mothers were depressed received services compared to 2.6% whose mothers were not depressed (aOR 4.6, 95% CI 1.5, 14.6). Among children receiving EI services, prevalence of depressive symptoms was 23.0% for mothers whose children became eligible as infants and 57.5% for mothers whose children became eligible as toddlers. Depressive symptoms in mothers of children eligible to receive EI services did not appear to limit participation. EI programs may be an appropriate setting in which to address maternal depressive symptoms.

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Notes

  1. All unweighted N’s are rounded to the nearest 50 subjects in accordance with the ECLS-B restricted data use license.

  2. Complete data available from authors on request.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by a grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau R40 MC08593. Additional support was provided by K23 career development awards (Feinberg K23NR010588; Silverstein K23MH074079). We thank Howard Bauchner, MD, Howard Cabral, PhD, Eugene Declercq, PhD, and Milton Kotelchuck, PhD, MPH, for their thoughtful review of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, 801 Massachusetts Avenue, Crosstown Center, 4th Floor, Boston, MA, 02118, USA

    Emily Feinberg

  2. Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Sara Donahue

  3. Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Robin Bliss

  4. Osteoarthritis and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Robin Bliss

  5. Division of General Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Emily Feinberg & Michael Silverstein

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  1. Emily Feinberg
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Correspondence to Emily Feinberg.

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Feinberg, E., Donahue, S., Bliss, R. et al. Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Participation in Early Intervention Services for Young Children. Matern Child Health J 16, 336–345 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-010-0715-3

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