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Mother-Infant Interaction, Life Events and Prenatal and Postpartum Depressive Symptoms Among Urban Minority Women in Primary Care

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Objectives: Prenatal and postpartum depression are significant mental health problems that can have negative effects on mother-infant interactions. We examined the relationships among mother-infant interactions, depressive symptoms, life events, and breastfeeding of low-income urban African American and Hispanic women in primary care settings. Methods: Participants were 89 African American and Hispanic women who were part of a larger mental health intervention study conducted in community health centers. Questionnaire data on depression, as well as negative and positive life events, were collected during pregnancy and at three-months postpartum, while mother-infant interaction observations and breastfeeding practice were only collected at three-months postpartum. Results: The ratings of maternal behavior for ‘depressed’ mothers did not differ from ‘nondepressed’ mothers. Except for gaze aversion behavior, infants' behavior while interacting with their mothers did not differ by maternal depression level. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that maternal positive life events positively predicted infant interactional summary ratings, while maternal negative life events were inversely associated with maternal interactional summary ratings. Conclusions: To improve services in primary care, perinatal screenings for depression can help identify those women most at risk. When follow-up use of structured diagnostic instruments is not possible or cost-effective, clinician assessment of severity of depression will determine women with clinical levels of depression. Reducing negative life events is beyond the control of women or clinicians but cognitive interventions to help women focus on positive life events can reduce the deleterious effects of depression on mothers and their infants.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported by grant R24MH57936 from the National Institute of Mental Health to Luis H. Zayas. Dr. Boyd's effort on this project was supported by grants from the W. E. B. Du Bois Collective Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania and K01 MH68619 from the National Institute of Mental Health. We are grateful to the women who gave of their time to participate in this study and to be observed with their infants. We thank Drs. Tiffany Field and Maria Hernandez-Reif and their assistants at the University of Miami for providing expert coding of the mother-infant videotapes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Rhonda C. Boyd PhD

  2. Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, USA

    Luis H. Zayas PhD

  3. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, USA

    M. Diane McKee MD, MS

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3535 Market Street, Suite 1230, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, USA

    Rhonda C. Boyd PhD

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  1. Rhonda C. Boyd PhD
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  2. Luis H. Zayas PhD
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  3. M. Diane McKee MD, MS
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Correspondence to Rhonda C. Boyd PhD.

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Boyd, R.C., Zayas, L.H. & McKee, M.D. Mother-Infant Interaction, Life Events and Prenatal and Postpartum Depressive Symptoms Among Urban Minority Women in Primary Care. Matern Child Health J 10, 139–148 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-005-0042-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-005-0042-2

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