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Cited by 417Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumPsychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending

Maternal Depression and Children’s Antisocial Behavior: Nature and Nurture Effects

Kim-Cohen, Julia, Moffitt, Terrie E., Taylor, Alan, Pawlby, Susan J., Caspi, Avshalom·2005·Archives of General Psychiatry
DOI 10.1001/archpsyc.62.2.173
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Children of depressed mothers have elevated conduct problems, presumably because maternal depression disrupts the caregiving environment. Alternatively, the association between maternal depression and children's antisocial behavior (ASB) may come about because (1) depressed women are likely to have comorbid antisocial personality traits, (2) depressed women are likely to mate and bear children with antisocial men, or (3) children of depressed mothers inherit a genetic liability for psychopathology. METHOD: We used data from the E-Risk Study, a representative British cohort of 1116 twin pairs assessed at 5 and 7 years of age. We tested for environmental mediation of the association between maternal depression during the children's first 5 years of life and children's ASB at age 7 years, free from familial liability for ASB. RESULTS: Maternal depression occurring after, but not before, the twins' birth was associated with child ASB and showed a significant dose-response relationship with child ASB at 7 years of age. Parental history of ASPD symptoms accounted for approximately one third of the observed association between maternal depression and children's ASB, but maternal depression continued to significantly predict children's ASB. Intraindividual change analyses indicated that children exposed to their mother's depression between ages 5 and 7 years showed a subsequent increase in ASB by age 7 years. The combination of depression and ASPD symptoms in mothers posed the greatest risk for children's ASB. CONCLUSIONS: Studies ignoring genetic transmission overestimate social transmission effects because both genetic and environmental processes are involved in creating risk for ASB in children of depressed mothers. Interventions for depressed mothers aiming to reduce conduct problems in their children should address parents' antisocial personality, as well as mothers' depression.

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  • Disturbances in early mother-infant interactions predict poorer infant cognitive outcome at 18 months and at 7 years.

    “These disturbances in early mother–infant interactions were found to predict poorer infant cognitive outcome at 18 months (Murray and Cooper, 2003) and at later time-points, namely 7 years of age (Kim-Cohen et al., 2005).”

    From The human parental brain: In vivo neuroimaging (2011) · cites this paper as Kim-Cohen et al., 2005

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Authors
Kim-Cohen, J., Moffitt, T. E., Taylor, A., Pawlby, S. J., & Caspi, A.
Affiliations
King's College London (GB)
ORCID
Venue
Archives of General Psychiatry
Publisher
American Medical Association (AMA)
Published
2005-02-01
Volume
62
Issue
2
Pages
173
ISSN
0003-990X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1001/archpsyc.62.2.173
OpenAlex
W2002152341
Cited by
417
References
77
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 34
FWCI
29.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Archives of General Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Economic and Social Research Council (L330 25 3002)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH18931, T32MH018931)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
Keywords
maternal depression, child antisocial behavior, conduct problems, antisocial personality disorder, environmental mediation, genetic susceptibility, social transmission, twin pairs, dose-response relationship, within-person change
MeSH terms
Adult, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Child, Child Behavior Disorders, Depressive Disorder, Family Health, Humans, Social Environment, Child of Impaired Parents

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