Bond Between Mother and Child: Effects of Maternal Depression

Introduction

In the article titled “Maternal Major Depression and Synchrony of Facial Affect During Mother-Child Interactions” that was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Anastacia Y. Kudinova, Mary L Woody, Kiera M. James and Katie L. Burkhouse discuss what happens during mother-child interactions in cases where the mother had Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). They did this by examining both the synchrony of facial affects the bond between mother and child.

Impact of Maternal Depression on Mother and Child Bond

A large amount of research has been done regarding whether or not children have more “issues” (abnormal cognitive, emotional, behavioral functioning, etc.) with a mother that has MDD than with a mother that does not. Strong evidence backing a lot of research suggest that children that have a mother with MDD are at a much higher risk of developing depression that that of a child that was raised by a mother whom does not have MDD. However, none of these studies really cover the potential impact of maternal depression on moment to moment exchanges (both positive and negative) during mother-child interactions. To cover the “gap” in research, a study was done to record the concurrent and lagged synchrony of facial effects of both mother and child using facial electromyography (EMG).

To conduct the study, 341 mother and child duos were recruited from the surrounding community. All of the mothers in the study had a history of at least one MDD episode (136) or had no history of MDD (166; for the control). A total of 9 children had had a history of MDD, 6 of which had a mother with a history of MDD. Approximately 29 of the children as well 53 women met the criteria for a certain anxiety disorder (agoraphobia, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, etc.). The parents were then asked to plan a vacation with their child(ren) for 4 minutes. Immediately following the vacation planning talk, the dyads [two] were asked to take 6 minutes to discuss issues that were previously written down by each individual before the discussions began. During each of these discussions, facial EMG was recorded simultaneously from the mother and child (Kudinova, et al., 2019, p. 287).

Conclusion

This study had limitations and there was not a clear conclusion to the study that showed direct effects of mother-child synchrony in positive/negative expressions that proved the child’s risk of developing depression in the future would be higher since the EMG results were not normally distributed and there were a lot of missing values in the results (Kudinova, et al., 2019, p. 292). The sample size was adequate as there were 341 mother-child dyads with, as previously mentioned, 136 mothers with MDD and 166 without MDD. Although there is no total number of children, it is mentioned that a mother could have more than one child with them. The data that was recorded was taken using a tool, an EMG, which can beconfusing for an everyday person to read an understand. One of the weaknesses in this article is that the authors do not explain the data results very well, resulting in individuals not knowing how to conclude properly on the findings.

Works Cited

1. Kudinova, A. Y., Woody, M. L., James, K. M., & Burkhouse, K. L. (2019). Maternal Major Depression and Synchrony of Facial Affect During Mother-Child Interactions. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 128(4), 287-294.

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2. Effron, D. A., Miller, D. T., & Monin, B. (2018). Hypocrisy and culture: Failing to practice what you preach receives harsher interpersonal reactions in independent (vs. interdependent) cultures. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 78, 371-383.