Browsing by Author "Mikkola, Jenna"

Aims. Maternal perinatal depression has been shown to have multiform adverse effects on child development, such as cognitive ability. However, the prior studies are limited to early childhood cognitive ability, and the association in school-age is yet to be determined. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between maternal perinatal depression and child cognitive ability at 7-11 years. It was hypothesized that both prenatal and postpartum depression, and also the continuity of perinatal depression from prenatal to postpartum period, would have a negative effect on child cognitive ability. Methods. The study sample, 423 mother-child-pairs, originates from Finnish PREDO-cohort. Perinatal depression was assessed with CES-D 14 times biweekly during pregnancy, beginning from gestational week 12+0, and two weeks and six months after delivery. Child cognitive ability was assessed with WISC-IV in terms of general cognitive, verbal and visual ability. The association between perinatal depression and general cognitive ability was analysed with multiple linear regression, and the association with verbal and visual ability with multivariate multiple linear regression. Results. Neither maternal prenatal nor postpartum depression was related to child general cognitive ability, verbal ability nor visual ability at 7-11 years. Continuity of depression from pregnancy to postpartum period was not related to child cognitive ability either. Conclusions. According to this study, there is no association between maternal perinatal depression and child cognitive ability at 7-11 years.