اثر افسردگی مادر در زمینه خطر در یک نمونه مادران فقیر شهری و کودکان نوپای آنها

Parenting is commonly experienced as a challenging and difficult task, and one factor that plays a central role in determining a parent’s ability to successfully raise his/her child is a mother’s psychological functioning. One example of a way in which the mother-child interaction may be compromised is when a mother suffers from depression. Depression may severely compromise a woman’s mental health, and may be particularly detrimental to a developing child. To date, maternal depression has been documented in a multitude of studies as a potentially limiting and detrimental psychological disorder that inhibits successful parenting. However, such studies have typically focused on postpartum depression and depression in later childhood rather than maternal depression in the second and third year of life. This study investigated relations between maternal depression and the quality of the interaction between mother’s and 18 to 30 month old toddlers, in a poor population of White, Black, and Latina women. In addition, maternal depression is considered in the context of several risk factors that may also have an effect upon a mother’s parenting abilities in the home environment.