Mothers with zero Beck depression scores act more “depressed” with their infants

Abstract

Mothers who scored zero on the Beck Depression Inventory (N = 25) were compared to “depressed” mothers (high scores on the Beck) (N = 39) and nondepressed mothers (N = 98) during face-to-face interactions with their 5-month-old infants. The interaction videotapes were rated on the Interaction Rating Scales and were coded second-by-second for attentive/affective behavior states. The zero Beck mothers and their infants received lower ratings and were in less positive behavior states (alone or together) than the high scoring Beck “depressed” mother/infant dyads and even more frequently than the nondepressed mother/infant dyads. The lower activity levels, lesser expressivity, and less frequent vocalizing were suggestive of “depressed” behavior in both the mothers and their infants. In addition, the infants of the zero Beck mothers had lower vagal tone and lower growth percentiles (weight, length, and head circumference) than the infants of nondepressed mothers, although they did not differ from the infants of depressed mothers on these measures. These data suggest that mothers who report no depressive symptoms may present as much, if not greater risk, for their infants than mothers who do report depressive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory.

?Depressed? fathers' interactions with their infants

“…Based on the BDI scores, families were screened (N ϭ 284) until 20 families of each type were enrolled in the study. Parents with scores 0 -2 were excluded in this study (9% of sample screened) because these types of parents were found to behave in a more "depressed" fashion than high BDI scoring parents in a previous study (Field, Morrow, Healy, Foster, Adlestein, & Goldstein, 1992)and parents with scores of 10 -16 (4% of sample screened) were excluded to more clearly demarcate the nondepressed and depressed groups. Families were screened until 20 families of each type were enrolled in the study.…”

Vocal and facial expression matching in infants of mothers with depressive symptoms

“…Infants of mothers who scored zero to two on the CES-D were not included in the study (N ϭ 2) because lowscoring mothers have been noted to exhibit more depressive symptoms such as lower activity levels, lesser expressivity, and less frequent vocalizing than high scoring mothers, and thus are thought to be denying their symptoms or showing a "faking good" syndrome (Field et al, 1992;Lyons-Ruth, Zoll, Connell, & Grunebaum, 1986;Scafidi, Field, Prodromidis, Abrams, 1995).…”

Touch by Intrusive and Withdrawn Mothers with Depressive Symptoms

“…These classification criteria are commonly used in research studies on depressed adults (Coyne and Gotlib, 1983). Mothers with 0-2 scores (N=9) were omitted because they have been noted to look depressed more than highxoring mothers (despite their low scores) and because they may be different from both the depressed and nondepressed mother groups (Field et al, 1992). Because we were interested in the effects of current depressive symptoms, we classified the mothers according to their scores when their infants were 3 months old.…”