1. The Effects of Mothers’ Postpartum Depression
on Children’s Gross and Fine Motor Skills
Jessica Willnera, Jessica Buthmanna, Jackie Finika,b, Yoko Nomura, Ph.D. a,b
a,Department of Psychology, Queens College, City University of New York, Kissena Blvd. Flushing, NY 11367
bDepartment of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029
Abstract
Results
Objective: To investigate the relationship between maternal postpartum depression and their children’s gross and fine motor skills.
Method: Maternal postpartum depression was assessed by the EPDS, and the Bayley-III was used to measure the children’s gross and fine motor abilities.
Results: Both gross and fine motor scores were significantly higher for children whose mothers experienced postpartum depression than those who did not.
Conclusion: The development of a child’s gross and fine motor skills is influenced by maternal postpartum depression, although not in the expected direction.
Results indicated that both gross and fine motor scores were higher for children whose mothers had postpartum depression than those whose mothers did not.
There was a significant difference in mean gross motor scores for children with mothers who experienced postpartum depression (M = 10.09, SD = 2.83) as compared to those who did not (M = 8.33, SD = 2.98), F (148) = 7.00, p =
Similarly, there was a significant difference in mean fine motor scores for children with mothers who experienced postpartum depression (M = 11.09, SD = 3.18) as compared to those who did not (M = 9.06, SD = 3.02), F (148) = 8.58, p =
Background & Population
8.33
10.09
Background: Previous research has indicated that children with depressed mothers score lower on tests of motor skills than children with non-depressed mothers (Field et al., 2001). Additionally, relatively high rates of motor development delays are associated with maternal depression (Cornish et al., 2005).
Sample Population: 148 pregnant women (n = 148) receiving prenatal care at either Mount Sinai Hospital or New York Hospital Queens’ OB/GYN clinic were recruited to participate in the longitudinal study of pregnancy (P.I. Yoko Nomura).
Gross Motor
Larger movements of the body using arms, legs, or the entire body
Fine Motor
Smaller actions such as grasping an object between the thumb and a finger
Discussion
Method
Maternal postpartum depression did not negatively impact child’s development in gross and fine motor skills; in fact, it resulted in increased motor abilities.
While the relationships observed was in the opposite direction than expected, this may be due to the small sample size (n=148). Greater research with larger sample sizes are required to further understand the relationship between postpartum depression and child motor development.
Further researchers should investigate developmental trajectories of motor ability in children of mothers who experienced postpartum depression to determine whether skills in early childhood are observed throughout the lifespan.
Future studies should investigate contributing factors to why higher gross and fine motor scores may be found in children of mothers who suffered from postpartum depression, such as parenting style in depressed vs. non-depressed mothers.
Measures:
Participants were administered the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale
(EPDS) to determine maternal depression status which was indicated by a score
on the EPDS of 10 or above.
The Bayley-III Scales of Infant Development were administered to children at months of age (M = 27 months SD = 7.71) to measure gross and fine motor ability. The raw scores were converted to scaled scores, which can be used to determine the child's performance compared with norms.
Data Analysis:
Two one-way ANOVAs were used to examine the association between maternal postpartum depression and the children’s gross and fine motor scores.
References:
Cornish, A.M., McMahona, C.A., Ungerer, J.A., Barnett, B., Kowalenko, N., & Tennant, C. (2005). Postnatal depression and infant cognitive and motor development in the second postnatal year: The impact of depression chronicity and infant gender. Infant Behavior & Development, 28, 407–417.
Field, T., Diego, M. A., Dieter, J., Hernandez-Reif, M., Schanberg, S., Kuhn, C., Yando, R., & Bendell, D. (2001). Depressed withdrawn and intrusive mothers’ effects on their fetuses and neonates. Infant Behavior & Development, 24, 27–39.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by grants K ; R01MH from NIMH (P.I. Yoko Nomura). Thank you to Mount Sinai Hospital and NYHQ’s Ob/Gyn staff. Thank you to the families who participated in this study.