Postpartum depression in mothers affects infant's language development: JAMA

Germany: A new study published in the Journal of American Medical Association found that children's speech perception trajectories are associated with subclinical depressive moods of postpartum mothers.

Speech perception provides a foundation for language development, and early disturbances increase the chance of subsequent language issues. Despite the fact that a major postpartum depressive episode is linked to language development, this correlation has not been studied in infants of mothers who had subclinical depressive episodes after giving birth, despite the fact that such a mood is frequently present in the first few weeks after birth. Given the availability of coping mechanisms for subclinical sad mood, it is crucial to determine if a subclinical depressed mother's mood following childbirth is connected with early language development.

46 healthy, monolingual German mother-infant pairs were assessed as part of this longitudinal cohort research, which was performed between January 1 and October 31, 2018. The Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences database of babies was used to draw the sample. The moderation analysis was carried out between July 1 and July 31, 2022, while the first statistical analysis was done between January 1 and March 31, 2021. When their children were 2 months old, mothers completed the German version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to report their postpartum mood. When the newborns were 2 months old (first assessment) and 6.5 months old (testing), electrophysiological correlates of baby speech perception were examined (follow-up).

The key findings of this study were:

1. At the first evaluation, a total of 46 women and their 2-month-old babies took part, and at the follow-up, 36 mothers and their then 6.5-month-old babies did as well.

2. According to moderate analyses, lower longitudinal changes in the babies' electrical brain responses to speech information from ages 2 to 6.5 months were related to more sad maternal subclinical postpartum mood.

In conclusion, this study paves the way for further investigation into the relationship between early intervention for caregivers who are depressed and children's language development.

Reference: 

Schaadt, G., Zsido, R. G., Villringer, A., Obrig, H., Männel, C., & Sacher, J. (2022). Association of Postpartum Maternal Mood With Infant Speech Perception at 2 and 6.5 Months of Age. In JAMA Network Open (Vol. 5, Issue 9, p. e2232672). American Medical Association (AMA). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.32672