Cited by 450Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentInfant Development and Preterm Care

Implications of Timing of Maternal Depressive Symptoms for Early Cognitive and Language Development

Sohr-Preston, Sara L., Scaramella, Laura V.·2006·Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review

Abstract

: Statistically, women, particularly pregnant women and new mothers, are at heightened risk for depression. The present review describes the current state of the research linking maternal depressed mood and children's cognitive and language development. Exposure to maternal depressive symptoms, whether during the prenatal period, postpartum period, or chronically, has been found to increase children's risk for later cognitive and language difficulties. The present review considers both the timing of maternal depression and the chronicity of mothers' depression on children's risk for cognitive and language delays. Infancy is frequently identified as a sensitive period in which environmental stimulation has the potential to substantially influence children's cognitive and language development. However, children's exposure to chronic maternal depression seems to be associated with more problematic outcomes for children, perhaps because depression interferes with mothers' ability to respond sensitively and consistently over time. Consistent with this expectation, interventions targeting parenting practices of depressed mothers have been found to increase children's cognitive competence during early childhood. The current review provides a synthesis of the current state of the field regarding the association between maternal depression and children's cognitive and language development during early childhood.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s10567-006-0004-2

Cites

207 of 207 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Untreated PPD seems to have negative consequences for both infants and mothers.

    “Untreated PPD seems to have negative consequences for both infants and mothers.”
  • Nonsystematic reviews have indicated that the risks to children of untreated depressed mothers, compared to mothers without PPD, include poor cognitive functioning, behavioral inhibition, emotional maladjustment, violent behavior, externalizing disorders, and psychiatric and medical disorders in adolescence.

    “Nonsystematic reviews have indicated that the risks to children of untreated depressed mothers (compared to mothers without PPD) include problems such as poor cognitive functioning, behavioral inhibition, emotional maladjustment, violent behavior, externalizing disorders, and psychiatric and medical disorders in adolescence.5,10–17”

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sohr-Preston, S. L., & Scaramella, L. V.
Affiliations
LSU New Orleans (US)
Corresponding author
Scaramella, Laura V.
Venue
Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review
Published
2006-03
Volume
9
Issue
1
Pages
65-83
ISSN
  • 1096-4037 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-2827
OpenAlex
W2007455321
Cited by
450
References
207
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 26
FWCI
15.21
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Infant Development and Preterm Care
Keywords
maternal depression, antenatal depression, postpartum depression, child cognitive development, child language acquisition, sensitive period, parenting support, early childhood, mother-child interaction
MeSH terms
Child Development, Developmental Disabilities, Child, Preschool, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Language Development Disorders, Male, Mothers, Pregnancy, Prenatal Care, Risk Factors, Child of Impaired Parents, Depression, Postpartum

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review