The objectives of this proposal are: 1] to describe and compare the behavior, affect, and interactive style of mothers with a pregravid diagnosis of panic disorder (PD) with or without agoraphobia, mothers with a pregravid diagnosis of major unipolar depression (MDD), and normal controls during social interaction with their infants; and 2] to describe and compare the effect of the behavior and affect of the three groups of mothers on their infants' behavior, affect, and interactive patterns during the-first 6 months of life. Using a prospective longitudinal design, mothers and infants will be videotaped in Tronick's Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm at 3 and 6 months. The infants' will also be videotaped interacting with a stranger and engaging with an inanimate object. The mothers' psychiatric status will be extensively evaluated over the course of the study and related to maternal and infant variables at each assessment point. Furthermore, all mothers and infants will meet a set of low risk demographic and medical criteria to minimize the effect of confounding factors that may contribute to impaired parenting and infant outcome. Mothers and infants will also meet specific psychiatric inclusion criteria to help delineate the samples. The proposed study will add significantly to the extant literature on maternal depression and will be the first study to evaluate the effects of maternal PD on infant social and emotional functioning. The proposed comparisons between the PD and MDD mothers and their infants will also enhance our ability to address issues of the specificity of effects associated with different psychiatric disorders and allow new insights into the complex interplay between maternal psychopathology, child development, and the mechanisms that lead to child adaptation and maladaptation.
| Tronick, Edward; Reck, Corrina (2009) Infants of depressed mothers. Harv Rev Psychiatry 17:147-56 |
| Weinberg, M K; Tronick, E Z; Beeghly, M et al. (2001) Subsyndromal depressive symptoms and major depression in postpartum women. Am J Orthopsychiatry 71:87-97 |
| Weinberg, M K; Tronick, E Z (1998) The impact of maternal psychiatric illness on infant development. J Clin Psychiatry 59 Suppl 2:53-61 |
| Weinberg, M K; Tronick, E Z (1998) Emotional characteristics of infants associated with maternal depression and anxiety. Pediatrics 102:1298-304 |
