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Depressive symptoms in black and Puerto Rican adolescent mothers in the first 3 years postpartum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Bonnie J. Leadbeater  and
Oriana Linares
Bonnie J. Leadbeater*
Affiliation:
Yale University
Oriana Linares
Affiliation:
School of Medicine Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
*
Address reprint requests to: Bonnie Leadbeater Department of Psychology, Yale University, P.O. Box 11A Yale Station, New Heaven, CT 06520-7447.
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Abstract

While depressive symptoms in adolescent mothers may affect both their own and their babies' development, little research has focused on the mothers. Self-reported symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory were collected at 1, 6, 12, and 28–36 months postpartum. Concurrent and reciprocal longitudinal relations among symptom levels, stressful life events, and social supports were investigated. Symptom levels declined over the four assessments, with changes in somatic, rather than cognitive affective, symptoms accounting for the decrease. Stressful life events and all sources of social supports predicted concurrent levels of depressive symptoms, but only social supports predicted declines in symptoms in the first year postpartum. Reciprocally, depressive symptoms tended (p = .06) to predict increases in stressful life events over time. Mothers were also categorized as reporting few (50%), intermittent (27.5%), or chronic (22.5%) symptoms in the first 12 months postpartum. Intermittently and chronically depressed mothers perceived their own mothers as less accepting than nondepressed mothers. Compared to nondepressed and intermittently depressed mothers, chronically depressed mothers also reported more stressful life events, were more likely to live alone, and experienced more moves by 28–36 months postpartum. The reciprocal causal relations among depressive symptoms, stress, and attachments to grandmothers and peers are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , July 1992 , pp. 451 - 468
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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