Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T12:12:10.681Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Course and correlates of postpartum depression during the transition to parenthood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Susan B. Campbell ,
Jeffrey. F. Cohn ,
Clare Flanagan ,
Sally Popper  and
Teri Meyers
Susan B. Campbell*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Jeffrey. F. Cohn
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Clare Flanagan
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Sally Popper
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Teri Meyers
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
*
Address reprint requests to: Dr. S. Campbell, Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology Program, University of Pittsburgh, 4015 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The transition to parenthood marks a major milestone in family development that is especially difficult for roughly 10% of postpartum women who develop clinical depressions serious enough to interfere with daily functioning. Relatively little is known about the course of postpartum depression, the factors associated with its onset or severity, or its impact on the quality of mother-infant interaction. We studied 70 depressed women and 59 demographically matched nondepressed women delivering their first child and then followed them longitudinally through 24 months. Although the majority of depressions had remitted by 6 months postpartum, some women were depressed throughout the follow-up period, and others continued to evidence subclinical symptoms, indicating that depression in postpartum women can be relatively chronic. Depressed women differed from comparison women on measures of personal and family history, their adaptation to pregnancy, and minor pregnancy and delivery complications. They also perceived their infants as more difficult to care for and their husbands as less supportive. A combination of these variables accounted for 49% of the variance in depression severity scores at 2 months. Depressed women also showed less positive engagement and more negative affect when observed with their infants at 2 months. Spouse support and maternal positive engagement with the baby at 2 months differentiated between those with more chronic versus short-lived depressions. The implications of these findings for the woman's and her infant's development are discussed.

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , January 1992 , pp. 29 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ainsworth, M. D., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bates, J. E., Freeland, C. B., & Lounsbury, M. L. (1979). Measurement of infant difficultness. Child Development, 50, 794–803.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Belsky, J., & Pensky, E. (1988). Marital change across the transition to parenthood. Marriage and Family Review, 12, 133–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belsky, J., Rovine, M., & Fish, M. (1989). The developing family system. In Gunnar, M. (Ed.), Systems and development, Vol. 22, Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology (pp. 119–166). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Campbell, S. B., & Cohn, J. F. (1991). Prevalence and correlates of postpartum depression in first-time mothers. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 594–599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchetti, D., & Schneider-Rosen, K. (1986). An organizational approach to childhood depression. In Rutter, M., Izard, C., & Read, P. (Eds.), Depression in young people: Clinical and developmental perspectives (pp. 71–134). New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Cohn, J. F., & Campbell, S. B. (in press). Influence of maternal depression on infant affect regulation. In Cicchetti, D. & Toth, S. (Eds.), Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology, Vol. 4: A developmental approach to affective disorders. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.Google Scholar
Cohn, J. F., Campbell, S. B., Matias, R., & Hopkins, J. (1990). Face-to-face interactions of postpartum depressed and non-depressed mother-infant pairs at 2 months. Developmental Psychology, 26, 15–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohn, J. F., Campbell, S. B., & Ross, S. (1991). Infant response in the still-face paradigm at 6 months predicts avoidant and secure attachment at 12 months. Development and Psychopathology, 3, 367–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, P. J., Campbell, E. A., Day, A., Kennerley, H., & Bond, A. (1988). Non-psychotic psychiatric disorder after childbirth. A prospective study of prevalence, incidence, course, and nature. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 799–806.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cutrona, C. E. (1984). Social support and stress in the transition to parenthood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 278–390.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cutrona, C. E., & Troutman, B. R. (1986). Social support, infant temperament, and parenting self-efficacy: A mediational model of postpartum depression. Child Development, 57, 1507–1518.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Downey, G., & Coyne, J. C. (1990). Children of depressed parents: An integrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 50–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Endicott, J., & Spitzer, R. L. (1978). A diagnostic interview: The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 837–844.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gonzales, L. R., Lewinsohn, P. M., & Clarke, G. N. (1985). Longitudinal follow-up of unipolar depressives: An investigation of predictors of relapse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53, 461–469.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gotlib, I. H., Whiffin, V. E., Mount, J. H., Milne, K., & Cordy, N. I. (1989). Prevalence rates and demographic characteristics associated with depression in pregnancy and the postpartum. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57, 269–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975). Four factor index of social status. Unpublished manual, Yale University, New Haven, CT.Google Scholar
Hopkins, J. (1984). Postpartum depression: The syndrome and its relationship to stress, infant characteristics, and social support. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Hopkins, J., Campbell, S. B., & Marcus, M. D. (1987). The role of infant-related stressors in postpartum depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 231–241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hopkins, J., Marcus, M. D., & Campbell, S. B. (1984). Postpartum depression: A critical review. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 498–515.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keller, M. B., & Shapiro, R. W. (1981). Major depressive disorder: Initial results from a one-year prospective naturalistic follow-up study. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 169, 761–768.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyons-Ruth, K., Connell, D. B., Zoll, D., & Stahl, J. (1987). Infants at social risk: Relations among infant maltreatment, maternal behavior, and infant attachment behavior. Developmental Psychology, 23, 223–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, J. K., Weissman, M. M., Tischler, G. L., Holzer, C. E., Leaf, P. J., Orvaschel, H., Anthony, J. C., Boyd, J. H., Burke, J. D., Kramer, M., & Stoltzman, R. (1984). Six-month prevalence of psychiatric disorders in three communities. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 959–967.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Hara, M. W., Neunaber, D. J., & Zekoski, E. M. (1984). Prospective study of postpartum depression: Prevalence, course, and predictive factors. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 158–171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Hara, M. W., Rehm, L. P., & Campbell, S. B. (1983). Postpartum depression: A role for social network and life stress variables. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 171, 336–341.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Hara, M. W., Schlechte, J. A., Lewis, D. A. & Varner, M. W. (1991). Controlled prospective study of postpartum mood disorders: Psychological, environmental, and hormonal variables. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 63–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
O'Hara, M. W., Zekoski, E. M.Philipps, , & Wright, E. J. (1990). A controlled, prospective study of postpartum mood disorders: Comparison of child-bearing and non-childbearing women. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 3–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radloff, J. S. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruble, D. N., Brooks-Gunn, J., Fleming, A. S., Fitzmaurice, G., Stangor, C., & Deutsch, F. (1990). Transition to motherhood and the self: Measurement, stability, and change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 450–463.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J., & Robins, E. (1978). Research Diagnostic Criteria: Rationale and reliability. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 773–782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teti, D. M., & Gelfand, D. M. (1990, 04). Maternal depression, parenting, and maternal self-efficacy: A longitudinal study of mothers and infants. In Field, T. (Chair), Maternal depression: Effects on infants. Symposium presented at the International Conference on Infant Studies,Montreal.Google Scholar
Teti, D. M., Gelfand, D. M., & Pompa, J. (1990). Depressed mothers' behavioral competence with their infants: Demographic and psychosocial correlates. Development and Psychopathology, 2, 259–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaughn, B. E., Taraldson, B., Crichton, L., & Egeland, B. (1980). Relationship between neonatal behavioral organization and infant behavior during the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development, 3, 47–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar