Depression is the most common mental disorder in the United States. Prevention and management of mental health disorders are national health goals for the United States for the year 2000. Depressive symptoms of mothers after childbirth have potential effects on family functioning, workplace productivity, well-being of children, and health care costs. The long-term objective of this project is to identify risk factors for maternal depressive symptoms in order to create and focus interventions effectively with high-risk mothers.
The aim of the proposed project is to perform a secondary data analysis on national health data to examine the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and child's health status. In an effort to increase what is known about risk factors leading to diminished maternal well-being and child's health, differences in maternal characteristics, performance of health risk and promotion behaviors, child's health, and maternal depressive symptoms across racial and ethnic groups and in mothers of varying ages and educational levels will be examined. Smoking, drug use, and alcohol consumption are examined as health risk behaviors. Health promotion behaviors assessed are exercise participation, vitamin intake, and use of prenatal services. The proposed data source is the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey and the 1991 Longitudinal Follow-up Survey. Data will be analyzed using two statistical packages: SAS and SUDAAN. The sample will consist of mothers who had a live birth in 1988 and whose child was still alive at the time of the 1991 follow-up (n=9,300). Few studies on national data have been conducted to measure the relationship of the selected predictor variables to maternal depressive symptoms. This study will add to what is known about maternal depressive symptoms and will lead to recommendations for interventions for at-risk mothers.
