Maternal Depression at 6 Weeks and 4 Months Postpartum and Maternal Facial Affect during Face-to-Face Interactions with 4-Month-Old Infants: Frequency and Stabilit

Postpartum (maternal) depression is a significant public health concern affecting maternal mental health and the child's cognitive, emotional and behavioral development. Maternal depression has been associated with mothers' impaired communication patterns during early mother-infant face-to-face interactions. The present study investigated how stability or change in maternal depression status between 6 weeks and 4 months postpartum is associated with differences in maternal facial affect during mother-infant face-to-face exchanges with 4-month-old infants. Four groups of mothers with either no depression, stable depression, remitted depression, or recent onset depression were videotaped during face-to-face interactions with their 4-month-old infants, and maternal facial affect was coded using microanalysis. The study examined whether the four groups of mothers differed in terms of frequencies of positive and negative facial affect, as well as the stability or predictability of mothers' facial affect over time during the interaction. Results indicated that mothers with recent onset depression exhibited fewer positive facial affect behaviors than mothers in the other three groups. In terms of stability or predictability of facial affect, results found that the facial affect of mothers who had been depressed at 6 weeks but no longer at 4 months was less predictable based on their own previous facial affect, and more predictable based on their infant's previous facial affect than mothers in the other three groups, suggesting that mothers whose depression had remitted were more vigilant in responding to the infant's behavior at the expense of their own self-stabilization.