Study Finds Depressed Mothers Show Less Attention to Their Child's Needs

Maternal Mental Health depressed mothers national alliance on mental illness Nami Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC Association Between Maternal Perinatal Depression and Anxiety and Child and Adolescent Development Postpartum Support International Dr. Alison Stuebe University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health

By Camille Hutchison , Parent Herald Aug 19, 01:15 pm

According to NAMI or National Alliance on Mental Illness, there are approximately 20 percent of adults in the United States and 17 percent of children with ages ranging from 6 to 17 are experiencing mental illness or mental health disorders. The most prevailing among both parents and children in the United States today are anxiety disorder (19%) or about 40 million Americans, depression (7%), and lastly post-traumatic stress disorder (4%).

About 17.3 million Americans or 7.1 percent of adults had experienced at least one significant depressive episode in the past few years. Women, who lead 80 percent of single families with children under 18, on the other hand, are more than two-thirds as likely as men to undergo depression. If left untreated, such disorders can entail a devastating impact on every individual in the family.

Children ages newborn to five are the most fragile ones for brain development, poor maternal mental health can contribute negative effects on how a kid's brain develops. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nationally, there are about 1 in 8 women who encounter the symptoms of postpartum depression but the ratio can become high as 1 in 5 women depending on the facets such as place, age, race, and ethnicity, per Regis College.

How poor maternal mental health affects children?

A study entitled Association Between Maternal Perinatal Depression and Anxiety and Child and Adolescent Development published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics states that both depression and anxiety of a mother from conception until the first year of the baby is associated with the negative developmental result through adolescence.

Approximately 15 percent to 23 percent of women worldwide undergo anxiety during their pregnancy whereas 15 percent experience anxiety after childbirth. According to Postpartum Support International, depression during pregnancy is estimated to impact 10 percent of women and 15 percent encounter postpartum depression. Such numbers could be greater for women who are in the impoverished area or teen parents.

Dr. Alison Stuebe, a professor of maternal and child health at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health, says that when parents struggle especially mothers, kids would also more likely to struggle. When they lack access to treatment as they do not have time to undergo such treatments, children, on the other hand, will be exposed to other stressors.

According to a study entitled Maternal Mental Health in Pregnancy and Child Behavior, depressed mothers display less attention and response to the necessities of their children as they poor models for mood regulation.

Seek treatment and improve maternal mental health

Depression and other factors that make maternal mental health unstable are associated with a higher risk of emotional and behavioral problems. Thus, the mental health index is also associated with hyperactivity and peer problems.

The mental health of a mother entails a huge impact on the child's behavioral and mental health, especially during the formative years of a child's life. A managing type of parent can have a diminished capacity to handle, respond, and react to their child in a way that will promote stability, growth, and also development.

According to Good Therapy, it is important for mothers who have unstable mental health to seek treatment as it will also decrease the risk of their child experiencing any consequences.