Taking care of mom’s mental health may be important to the overall development of their children, a new study finds. Wu et al (2018) researched the impact that a mother’s depression can have on a child’s emotional and intellectual development, finding that children with depressed mother’s had significantly lower verbal IQ scores than that of children whose mother was not depressed.
Cheryl Platzman Weinstock writes in Reuters “At age five, children with severely depressed mothers had an average verbal IQ score of 7.3 (on a scale of 1 to 19), compared to a higher score of 7.8 in children without depressed mothers. The discrepancy “might not seem like a big difference, but it is truly significant and important and highly meaningful for children’s learning skills,” [the researchers] told Reuters Health by phone. These children will have a smaller vocabulary and poorer comprehension skills…The study team also found that depressed moms didn’t interact as well with their children. Researchers had observed the mothers’ emotional and verbal communication with their children during spontaneous interactions in the home. They observed how often mothers praised their children, read to them, conveyed positive feelings and hugged their child, among other things. Highly depressed moms were less responsive, affectionate, loving and warm. They didn’t invest emotionally or provide learning materials to their child as much as mothers who were not depressed, the authors write in the journal Child Development.”
While we cannot be certain that mother’s depression is the source of these lower IQ scores, this study certainly highlights the need to focus our attention on the mother’s mental health in addition to children’s overall well-being. Mother’s who screen for depression should be provided with resources and support necessary to combat depressive symptoms, ensuring their child’s development is not impacted!
Read the Reuter’s Article here
Read the Full Article in Child Development