خط سیر رفتار پدر و مادر و افسردگی مادر

Abstract This study investigated trajectories of maternal parenting behavior across the infants’ first 18 months of life in relation to maternal depression. Furthermore, predictors of the quality of the mother–infant relationship at 18 months were examined. Participants consisted of three types of mother–infant dyads: mothers with comorbid depression and anxiety (n = 19), mothers with depression (n = 7) and nondepressed mothers (n = 24). Maternal behaviors and the quality of relationship were rated on a global scale (NICHD) from video-taped mother–infant interactions. Maternal behaviors rated at six, 12 and 18 months were collapsed into a composite variable maternal style. The quality of the relationship captured as dyadic mutuality was rated at 18 months. Comorbid and depressed mothers showed lower quality in maternal style compared with the nondepressed mothers at six months. Over the follow-up the comorbid mothers were lower in maternal style compared to the nondepressed mothers, but the comorbid mothers increased significantly in maternal style despite elevated depression symptoms. Mean maternal style and infant cognitive skills predicted the quality in relationship at 18 months suggesting that the mother–toddler relationship depends on contributions from the mother and the child. Higher growth in maternal style despite of depression symptoms among comorbid mothers was interpreted against the background that the majority of the comorbid mother–infant dyads received several treatments

Conclusions The comorbid mothers were rated as lower in quality of maternal parenting behaviors during the first 18 months of the infants’ life as compared to the nondepressed mothers. Despite that the comorbid mothers reported elevated depression symptoms they showed a significant increase in quality of parenting over the follow-up. This suggests that the comorbid and the nondepressed mothers are getting more similar over time in parenting behavior. These findings are incongruent with reports from other studies showing stability or decrease in quality of maternal parenting behavior in the context of elevated depression symptoms. The results in the present study could possibly be related to the fact that most of the comorbid mothers and their infants were in different types of treatment during the time of study. The present study had few participants with depression only, and thus did not allow us to draw reliable conclusions on how maternal depression-only influences maternal parenting behavior during the first 18 months of life. The results also showed that the quality of the mother–toddler relationship at 18 months were not related to the mothers depression disorder but to the maternal parenting behavior over the follow-up and the infants cognitive skills at six months of age. The results illustrate that the mother–toddler relationship depends on contributions from the mother and the child.