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The effect of postnatal depression on mother–infant interaction, infant response to the Still-face perturbation, and performance on an Instrumental Learning task

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2004

CHARLES STANLEY ,
LYNNE MURRAY  and
ALAN STEIN
CHARLES STANLEY
Affiliation:
Sunderland Royal Hospital
LYNNE MURRAY
Affiliation:
University of Reading
ALAN STEIN
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Abstract

A representative community sample of primiparous depressed women and a nondepressed control group were assessed while in interaction with their infants at 2 months postpartum. At 3 months, infants were assessed on the Still-face perturbation of face to face interaction, and a subsample completed an Instrumental Learning paradigm. Compared to nondepressed women, depressed mothers' interactions were both less contingent and less affectively attuned to infant behavior. Postnatal depression did not adversely affect the infant's performance in either the Still-face perturbation or the Instrumental Learning assessment. Maternal responsiveness in interactions at 2 months predicted the infant's performance in the Instrumental Learning assessment but not in the Still-face perturbation. The implications of these findings for theories of infant cognitive and emotional development are discussed.This research was supported by the award of a Medical Research Council Training Fellowship to Charles Stanley. Lynne Murray was supported by a Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellowship. Alan Stein was supported by the Tedworth Trust and the Wellcome Trust. The authors would like to thank Anji West and Agnese Fiori\NCowley for their help with the coding of the assessments, Robbie Paterson for administrative assistance, Richard Hooper for assistance with the statistical analyses and Peter Cooper for collaboration in the planning of the study.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 1 - 18
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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