Depressed moms' kids may be prone to behavioural problems, injury

Washington, December 4 : If a mother suffers from depression the chances of her child suffering from behavioural problems and injury are likely to be high, says a research.

In the US research, the scientists looked at the impact of maternal depression on children's behaviour and injury rates among 1106 mother and child pairs between 1992 and 1994.

The participants comprised of mothers and their children who were all taking part in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, which has been tracking the health of young mothers and their children from birth since 1986.

The analysis of the study revealed that 94 children, all of whom were below 6 years, had sustained injuries, sufficient to require medical attention during the study period. Two thirds of these injuries had happened at home.

In order to assess problem behaviour among the children and depressive symptoms among the mothers validated scales were used.

The study showed that kids whose mothers scored persistently high marks on the depression scales were more than twice as likely to have been injured as those whose mothers had a low rating.

And children whose mothers had a high rating were significantly more likely to have behavioural problems and to 'act out'. Boys were more at risk of this than girls.

The deeper analysis of the study showed that for every 1-point increase on the depression score, the risk of injury rose by 4 percent and the risk of behavioural problems increased by 6 percent.

These findings held true after taking account of influential factors, such as household income, educational attainment and health insurance coverage.

The researchers suggested that maternal depression might increase the risk of behavioural problems in the child, which might in turn boost the risk of injury.

They added that maternal depression might also result in less effective supervision of children or possibly an increased number of injury hazards found in the home.