Relationship between maternal depression and social maturity in preschool children

Clinical reports have indicated that mothers who are depressed tended to have young children who lagged in their social development. In order to answer the question of whether there is, in fact, an inverse relationship between maternal depression and social maturity in preschool aged children, this study was conducted. A sample of twenty mothers, aged twenty to thirty-five years, and their twenty-three children, aged three to five and one-half years, were chosen from the in-patient psychiatric units of University Hospital and Granite Comprehensive Mental Health Center in Salt Lake City, Utah* The emergency service of University Medical Center and the out-patient department of Granite Comprehensive Mental Health Center were also utilized to collect the data from the dates of September 1972 to February 1973• The mothers were administered the Beck Depressive Inventory (BDI), and a Personal Data Interview (PDl) developed by the investigator. The Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS) was used as a measure of social maturity of the children. The preschool aged children were given the Cooperative Preschool Inventory (CPl) as another measure of their social maturity. Regression analyses were computed. It was found that mothers who had had a higher number of depressive episodes and had made more suicide attempts tended to have children who scored lower on both the total VSMS (r = -.45,P < .05) and the CPI (r = -.55, p < .Ol), The results of this study suggested further that mothers who were receiving psychiatric treatment or were taking anti-depressant drugs, had children who had more adequate social maturity as measured by the VSMS and the CPI than depressed women who had no such treatment. A history of paternal depression showed an inverse but nonsignificant relationship to the child's total scores on the maturity scales. Demographic variables, such as financial status, were positively related to the children's scores on both the VSMS and the CPI. This suggests that the higher income family may provide more opportunities for the child to learn and try out his social behaviors. Results of the study indicated that further research into the effects of maternal depression on the social maturity level of children is warrented.