Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Infant Injuries Linked to Mother's Depression
Massachusetts child injury lawyer Thomas M. Kiley concentrates on legal issues regarding children’s injuries. A recent study published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology found that infants and toddlers whose mothers are severely depressed are almost three times more likely to suffer accidental injuries than other children in the same age group. According to Science Daily, the study’s findings suggest that by treating the mother’s depression, the young children’s health will also improve.
The cause of these results is likely that chronically depressed mothers may not appropriately watch over the children to ensure their safety. Symptoms of depression can include inattention, poor concentration and irritability, which might lead to poor supervision of children.
Dr. David Schwebel, director of the UAB Youth Safety Lab examined 1,364 mothers included in the National institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. Of those mothers, 2.5% reported severe clinical depression, 15.5% reported being moderately depressed. The researchers found that that young children from birth to 3 years whose mothers suffered severe clinical depression were three times more likely to experience accidental injuries. Those results remained consistent even when taking into account other factors like socio-economic status, parenting styles, and children’s sex, temperament and behavior. There was little difference in the injury rates of children older from age 3 to first grade. Schwebel said older children begin making their own decisions about acting in safe ways and parenting mattered less for these children than during the toddler years.
The study suggested that future research should take into consideration the environment where the children are injured and the ages children are most susceptible to accidental injuries when their mothers have severe depression. The study also suggested studying further the various symptoms of maternal depression such as anger and irritability and its affect on children’s injuries.
An earlier study found that kids of depressed moms were also more prone to behavioral problems. The study done in 2005 found that at age 3, children whose mothers are chronically depressed fare significantly worse on tests and other measures showing school readiness, verbal comprehension and language skills than other children. Significantly higher levels of antisocial behavior were found in seven-year-old children whose mothers were depressed during the child’s first five years of life. The researchers looked at the impact of maternal depression on children’s behavior and injury rates among 1,106 mother and child pairs between 1992 and 1994.
The mothers and their children were all taking part in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, which has been tracking the health of young mothers and their children from birth since 1986. In total, 94 children, all of whom were under the age of 6, had sustained injuries, sufficient to require medical attention during the study period. Two thirds of these injuries had happened at home.
Children whose mothers scored persistently high marks on the depression scales were more than twice as likely to have been injured as those whose mothers had a low rating. And children whose mothers had a high rating were significantly more likely to have behavioral problems and to “act out.” Boys were more at risk of this than girls.
When analyzed in more depth, the findings showed that for every 1 point increase on the depression score, the risk of child injury rose by 4% and the risk of behavioral problems increased by 6%.
