Disentangling The Relationships Between Infant Temperament, Postnatal Depression And Toddler Behaviour Problems: Preliminary Results From A Prospective Study
McMahon, C1, Kowalenko, N, Barnett, B, Don, N, & Tennant, C.
Research Fellow, Department of Psychological Medicine, Level 5, Block 4, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, 2065. Ph. (02) 9926 7786, Fax (02) 9926 7730, email: cmcmahon@med.usyd.edu.au
A number of studies have reported relationships between difficult infant temperament and postnatal depression, and both maternal depression and infant temperament are reported to be associated with toddler behaviour problems. This paper aims to disentangle the relationships between postnatal depression, maternal reports of infant temperament and subsequent infant behaviour problems.
Subjects
45 mothers and infants admitted to Tresillian Family Care Centres have been followed up until 12-15 months of age. Our pilot study has demonstrated that 50% of residential care mothers have postnatal depression and also that "infant difficultness" is common and yet uniformly distributed among both the depressed and non-depressed mothers.
Method
Depressive symptoms were assessed using the EPDS (3-4 months) and the CES-D (12 months). Mothers were interviewed on both occasions using the CIDI to assess whether they met DSM IV criteria for a major depressive episode. Infant temperament was rated by mothers and fathers at both 4 and 12 months using the Short Temperament Scale for Infants. Toddler behaviour problems were assessed at 12 months using the Behaviour Screening Questionnaire (BSQ) which assesses self-regulatory behaviours (feeding and sleeping), play, and response to other infants and children. In addition, 35 of the infants have been assessed at 15 months using the Bayley Behaviour Rating Scales (BBRS) which assess attention/arousal, social orientation and engagement, emotional regulation and motor quality during developmental testing.
Results
Correlations between infant temperament at 4 and 12 months will be explored and descriptive statistics will be presented comparing this group of toddlers with normative data for both the BSQ and the BBRS. Finally, the relative contributions of infant temperament, maternal depression and the interaction between them in explaining toddler behaviour problems will be explored using dichotomous logistic regression and multiple regression.
Clinical implications of the findings will be discussed.
