Reply to Hagen and Thornhill

Myers, Sarah; Bürger, Oskar; Johns, Sarah E.

doi:10.1093/emph/eow033

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…The PATHOS-D would also predict elevated rates of PND resulting from psychosocial stress associated with lockdown. We do not consider our data to favour any one hypothesis in particular; current hypotheses regarding the evolution of PND and depression more generally are also not without their critics (Nettle, 2004;Myers et al, 2016Myers et al, , 2017Rantala et al, 2018). Nonetheless, regardless of the evolutionary origins, postnatal depressive symptoms are undoubtedly an indicator of distress and if relatives were most likely to come to a mother's aid, inclusive fitness would explain why.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

“…While the evolutionary, ultimate function of depression is still under debate ( Nettle, 2004 ; Hahn-Holbrook and Haselton, 2014 ; Myers et al, 2016 , 2017 ; Hagen and Thornhill, 2017 ; Raison and Miller, 2017 ; Rantala et al, 2018 ), PND is associated with costs for both mothers and their children. For example, it inhibits a mother’s ability to care for herself and her infant ( Downey and Coyne, 1990 ; Boath et al, 1998 ), and is associated with increased risks of a range of inflammation-related illnesses ( Mykletun et al, 2009 ; Keicolt-Glaser and Glaser, 2002 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Communication Across Maternal Social Networks During England’s First National Lockdown and Its Association With Postnatal Depressive Symptoms

Myers

Emmott

2021

Front. Psychol.

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Postnatal/postpartum depression (PND/PPD) had a pre-COVID-19 estimated prevalence ranging up to 23% in Europe, 33% in Australia, and 64% in America, and is detrimental to both mothers and their infants. Low social support is a key risk factor for developing PND. From an evolutionary perspective this is perhaps unsurprising, as humans evolved as cooperative childrearers, inherently reliant on social support to raise children. The coronavirus pandemic has created a situation in which support from social networks beyond the nuclear family is likely to be even more important to new mothers, as it poses risks and stresses for mothers to contend with; whilst at the same time, social distancing measures designed to limit transmission create unprecedented alterations to their access to such support. Using data from 162 mothers living in London with infants aged ≤6 months, we explore how communication with members of a mother’s social network related to her experience of postnatal depressive symptoms during the first “lockdown” in England. Levels of depressive symptoms, as assessed via the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, were high, with 47.5% of the participants meeting a ≥11 cut-off for PND. Quasi-Poisson regression modelling found that the number of network members seen in-person, and remote communication with a higher proportion of those not seen, was negatively associated with depressive symptoms; however, contact with a higher proportion of relatives was positively associated with symptoms, suggesting kin risked seeing mothers in need. Thematic qualitative analysis of open text responses found that mothers experienced a burden of constant mothering, inadequacy of virtual contact, and sadness and worries about lost social opportunities, while support from partners facilitated family bonding. While Western childrearing norms focus on intensive parenting, and fathers are key caregivers, our results highlight that it still “takes a village” to raise children in high-income populations and mothers are struggling in its absence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication Across Maternal Social Networks During England’s First National Lockdown and Its Association With Postnatal Depressive Symptoms

Myers

Emmott

2021

Front. Psychol.

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“…Our sample, being drawn from industrialised populations, is obviously unrepresentative of the human species as a whole ( Henrich, Heine & Norenzayan, 2010 ), thus the cross-cultural and historical applicability of these findings is uncertain. This being the case, we refrain from speculating as to whether or not these findings have implications for debates surrounding the evolutionary origins of PND ( Myers, Burger & Johns, 2016 ; Hagen & Thornhill, 2017 ; Myers, Burger & Johns, 2017 ). We have no data with which to test for ethnic differences in these relationships; ethnicity is an ambiguous means by which to categorise individuals ( Bhopal, 2004 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Postnatal depression is associated with detrimental life-long and multi-generational impacts on relationship quality

Myers

Johns

2018

PeerJ

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Postnatal depression (PND) is known to be associated with a range of detrimental child and adolescent outcomes, resulting from its disruptive impact on mother-child relationship quality. However, until now little has been known about the impact of PND on the longer-term relationships between mothers and their children, and any intergenerational effects this may have. Mother-child relationship quality is of interest from an evolutionary perspective as it plays a role in the accrual of offspring embodied capital, thus affecting offspring quality and offspring’s capacity to subsequently invest in their own children. Relationships with offspring also mediate grandparent-grandchild relations; if PND negatively affects long-term mother–offspring relationship quality, it is also likely to negatively affect grandmaternal investment via reduced grandmother–grandchild relationship quality. Here, we use responses to a retrospective questionnaire study of postmenopausal women, largely from the UK and US, to assess the impact of PND occurring in generation 1 on mother–child relationship quality across the life course of the child (generation 2) with whom it was associated, and also on the relationship quality with grandchildren (generation 3) from that child. Average mother-child relationship quality was lower when the child’s birth was associated with PND. Multi-level regression modelling found that mother-child relationship quality decreased as PND symptom severity increased after controlling for individual effects and a variety of other factors known to influence relationship quality (individual mothers n = 296, mother-child dyads n = 646). Additionally, intergenerational relationships appear to be affected, with PND negatively associated with grandmother-grandchild relations (individual grandmothers n = 125, relations with grandchildren from n = 197 grandmother-parent dyads). That PND has long-term detrimental consequences for mother-child relationships, well beyond adolescence, highlights the need for investment in strategies to prevent PND and its cascade of negative multigenerational effects.

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Reply to Hagen and Thornhill

Cited by 2 publications

References 3 publications

Communication Across Maternal Social Networks During England’s First National Lockdown and Its Association With Postnatal Depressive Symptoms

Communication Across Maternal Social Networks During England’s First National Lockdown and Its Association With Postnatal Depressive Symptoms

Postnatal depression is associated with detrimental life-long and multi-generational impacts on relationship quality

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