Kids with- Depressed Mom's At Higher Risk

[Janna]

Depressed Moms' Kids at Higher Injury Risk

Published: 12/05/07
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Young children of depressed mothers are at heightened risk for behavioral problems and injury, new research shows.

A team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center looked at 1992-1994 data on more than 1,100 mother/child pairs taking part in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth.

During the study period, 94 of the children (all under age 6) suffered injuries serious enough to require medical attention. Two-thirds of the injuries occurred at home.

Children of mothers who had persistently high scores on measures of depression symptoms were more than twice as likely to be injured as children of mothers with low scores of depression symptoms.

The study also found that children (especially boys) of mothers with high depression scores were much more likely to have behavioral problems and to "act out."

The researchers concluded that every one point increase on a mother's depression score was associated with a 4 percent increased risk of injury and a 6 percent increased risk of behavioral problems in children.

That held true even after the researchers took into account a number of major factors, such as household income, health insurance coverage and level of education.

Depression in mothers may increase the risk of behavioral problems in children and, in turn, boost youngsters' risk of injury, said the study authors, who added that depression in mothers may also result in less supervision of children or increased number of injury hazards in the home.

The study was published in the journal Injury Prevention.

 

[BusynMember]

Ah, not sure I buy that the mothers being depressed cause the accidents. I think it's more that depression and mental health issues are inherited so the kids are more likely to have disorders of their own and get hurt more. My poor biological son inherited my mood disorder and got a big dose of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which is far beyond anything I ever had. I know some will, but I don't put any stock in it beyond the fact that the kids are probably more wired.

 

[goldenguru]

Well I get what this study is suggesting.

But ya know, it kind of irritated me too. Let's give the message to moms one more time. Ya know - "Your shortcomings/illnesses/struggles made your kid the way he is. It's your fault. Your son is in prison because you suffered with depression".

I think its important to realize that chronic depression affects those around us. But, more importantly where are the suggestions for finding help for these mothers? Where are the support systems to help mom parent well in spite of a debilitating illness?

Maybe its my current mood - but I find this slightly offensive to motherhood.

 

[flutterbee]

Ditto. And more importantly, where are the dads?

 

[gcvmom]

I agree with MWM. I think that the mental health issues are a by-product of having kids with behavioral disorders... and perhaps they were always there under the surface and were brought to the fore by the other issues in the family. At least that seems to be MY case. I didn't need antidepressants until difficult child 2 was diagnosis'd with ADHD and my husband got his diagnosis (and by then difficult child 1 was first grade with his ADHD diagnosis and I also had a newborn -- basically everything was coming to a head at once).

My difficult child's had a number of "accidents" -- most of which were due to husband's inattention, not mine!