Maternal depression and early childhood development among children aged 24-59 months: the mediating effect of responsive caregiving

Siyu Zou; Xinye Zou; Ruolin Zhang; Kefan Xue; Angela Y Xiao; Mo Zhou; Ziyuan Fu; Hong Zhou

doi:10.1186/s12991-024-00515-z

Maternal depression and early childhood development among children aged 24-59 months: the mediating effect of responsive caregiving

Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2024 Aug 20;23(1):30. doi: 10.1186/s12991-024-00515-z.

Authors

Siyu Zou^{1

2}, Xinye Zou³, Ruolin Zhang⁴, Kefan Xue⁵, Angela Y Xiao⁶, Mo Zhou², Ziyuan Fu², Hong Zhou^{7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
² Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China.
³ Department of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Duke Kunshan University, No.8 Duke Ave., Kunshan, 215316, Jiangsu, China.
⁵ Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6LH, UK.
⁶ Department of International Studies, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55105, USA.
⁷ Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China. [email protected].
⁸ Peking University Health Science Center - Weifang Joint Research Center for Maternal and Child Health, Beijing, 100191, China. [email protected].
⁹ National Health Commission Key Laboratory of Reproductive Health, Peking University School of Public Health, Beijing, 100191, China. [email protected].

Abstract

This study examined whether maternal depression is related to Early Childhood Developmental (ECD) delay among children by quantifying the mediating contribution of responsive caregiving. We used data from 1235 children (Children's mean age = 50.4 months; 582 girls, 653 boys, 93.9% were Han), selected through convenience sampling, in 2021. 4.7% of children had ECD delay, 34.3% of mothers had depression. Children with depressed mothers were less likely to receive responsive caregiving (OR 4.35, 95% CI 2.60-7.27), and those who did not receive responsive caregiving were more likely to experience ECD delay (OR 3.89, 95% CI 1.89-8.02). Responsive caregiving partly mediated the relationship between maternal depression and ECD. Early intervention for children with depressed mothers is worthy of further investigation.

Keywords: Early childhood development; Maternal depression; Positive discipline; Responsive caregiving.

Grants and funding

PKUWF-Y07/research fund of the Peking University Health Science Center - Weifang Joint Research Center for Maternal and Child Health