Peer-reviewed article

Child Physical Well-Being in the Context of Maternal Depression

Sarah Dow‐Fleisner, Summer Sherburne Hawkins · 28 Mar 2018

Abstract

Maternal depression is associated with negative outcomes in children, with less known about physical health outcomes. Poor child physical health is a robust predictor of negative outcomes across the life course. Thus, authors examined the association between maternal depression and child physical well-being, accounting for multiple risk and protective factors. Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,965) were used to examine the association between three indicators of child physical well-being (overall health status, overweight, and asthma) and maternal depression at the nine-year follow-up, controlling for child-, maternal-, and family-level risk and protective factors. Unadjusted regression analyses revealed that maternal depression was associated with increased rates of poor overall health, overweight, and asthma. When adjusting for parenting stress and competence, maternal depression was no longer a significant risk factor for overall poor health; when controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, it was no longer a risk factor for asthma. After adjusting for multiple factors, maternal depression remained a significant risk factor for childhood overweight. Findings highlight the importance of reducing perceived parenting stress and increasing competence for depressed mothers and suggest that more research is needed to examine pathways through which maternal depression may lead to childhood overweight.