The relationship between depressive symptoms following premature birth, mothers' coping style, and knowledge of infant development

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between ways of coping, factual knowledge of infant development, means of acquiring information about infants and depressive symptoms for a group of mothers at the time of their premature infant's discharge home. Thirty mothers and their well premature singleton infants were enrolled during the newborn period. Two-thirds were first-time mothers. For this group, maternal depressive symptoms were predicted by lower reported use of informal, socio-cultural modes of gaining information about infants, more escape± avoidance coping, and less accurate maternal knowledge of infant development. These three factors accounted for 48.1% of the total variance in depressive symptomatology on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. These relationships were not associated with the premature infants' characteristics or other maternal factors (age, education and occupation). The data suggest that educating mothers of premature infants about infant development may be protective against the development of depressive symptoms in the postpartum period. Downloaded by [University of California Santa Cruz] at 14:57 04 December 2014 314 M. VEDDOVI ET AL.

The Contributions of Parenting and Postnatal Depression on Emergent Language of Children in Low-Income Families

“…In addition, research has also found a link between knowledge of childrearing and maternal role self-efficacy (Machida et al 2002) and mental health (Veddovi et al 2001). In particular, Goodman and Gotlieb (1999) suggested that maternal depression may negatively influence child development through children's heritability of depression, possession of dysfunctional neuroregulatory mechanisms, early exposure to maternal maladaptive cognitions, behaviors, and affect, and through being raised in a stressful environment (p. 461).…”

Mothers' perceptions of their premature infant's communication: A description of two cases

“…Parents have described the NICU as overwhelming and frightening (Leonard & Mayers, 2008). Thirdly, mothers themselves are at higher risk of exhibiting depressive symptoms in response to the stress of having a premature infant (Veddovi, Kenny, Gibson, & Starte, 2001). Depressed mothers show less positive parenting and have more difficulties in interpreting their infant's behaviours (Singer et al, 2003).…”

Maternal age and depressive symptoms in a low‐income sample

“…In general, teen mothers tend to underestimate the age of onset of abilities (Tamis-Lemonda, Shannon, & Spellman, 2002). Lack of knowledge of development may be related to increased maternal depressive symptoms among older mothers (Huang, Caughy, Genevro, & Miller, 2005;Reis, 1988;Veddovi, Gibson, Bowen, & Starte, 2001). The relationship between knowledge and depression is similar for older adolescent mothers (17-19 years), but has not shown a significant association for younger adolescent mothers (16 years or younger; Reis, 1988).…”