Depressed Moms' Kids at Higher Injury Risk

Depressed Moms' Kids at Higher Injury Risk
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Young children of depressedmothers are at heightened risk for behavioral problems and injury, newresearch shows.
A team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center looked at1992-1994 data on more than 1,100 mother/child pairs taking part in theNational Longitudinal Study of Youth.
During the study period, 94 of the children (all under age 6) sufferedinjuries serious enough to require medical attention. Two-thirds of theinjuries occurred at home.
Children of mothers who had persistently high scores on measures ofdepression symptoms were more than twice as likely to be injured aschildren of mothers with low scores of depression symptoms.
The study also found that children (especially boys) of mothers withhigh depression scores were much more likely to have behavioral problemsand to "act out."
The researchers concluded that every one point increase on a mother'sdepression score was associated with a 4 percent increased risk of injuryand a 6 percent increased risk of behavioral problems in children.
That held true even after the researchers took into account a number ofmajor factors, such as household income, health insurance coverage andlevel of education.
Depression in mothers may increase the risk of behavioral problems inchildren and, in turn, boost youngsters' risk of injury, said the studyauthors, who added that depression in mothers may also result in lesssupervision of children or increased number of injury hazards in thehome.
The study was published in the journal Injury Prevention.
More information
Mental Health America has more about women and depression.