Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The impact of postpartum depression and anxiety disorders on children’s processing of facial emotional expressions at pre-school age

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Archives of Women's Mental Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To enhance understanding of impaired socio-emotional development in children of postpartum depressed or anxious mothers, this longitudinal study addressed the question of whether maternal postpartum depression and anxiety disorders result in deficits in children’s processing of facial emotional expressions (FEEs) at pre-school age. Thirty-two mothers who had fulfilled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) criteria for postpartum depression and/or anxiety disorder and their pre-school aged children were tested for FEE processing abilities and compared to a healthy control group (n = 29). Child assessments included separate tasks for emotion recognition and emotion labelling. Mothers completed an emotion recognition test as well as the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders I (SCID-I). Children of postpartum depressed and/or anxious mothers performed significantly worse than control children at labelling, but not at recognizing facial expressions of basic emotions. Emotion labelling at pre-school age was predicted by child age and maternal postpartum mental health, but neither current maternal mental health nor current maternal emotion recognition was associated with child FEE processing. Results point to a specific importance of early social experiences for the development of FEE labelling skills. However, further studies involving sensitive measures of emotion recognition are needed to determine if there might also exist subtle effects on FEE recognition.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andrews G, Hall W, Teesson M, Henderson S (1999) The mental health of Australians. Mental Health Branch, Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, Cranberra

  • Andrews G, Sanderson K, Slade T, Issakidis C (2000) Why does the burden of disease persist? Relating the burden of anxiety and depression to effectiveness of treatment. Bull World Health Organ 78(4):446–454

    PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Arteche A, Joormann J, Harvey A, Craske M, Gotlib IH, Lehtonen A et al (2011) The effects of postnatal maternal depression and anxiety on the processing of infant faces. J Affect Disord 133(1–2):197–203

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S, Hill J, Raste Y, Plumb I (2001) The ‘Reading the mind in the eyes’ Test revised version: a study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 42(2):241–251

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck CT (1995) The effects of postpartum depression on maternal-infant interaction: a meta-analysis. Nurs Res 44(5):298–304

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blair RJR, Coles M (2000) Expression recognition and behavioural problems in early adolescence. Cogn Dev 15(4):421–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bölte S (2005) Reading mind in the eyes - deutsche Fassung

  • Bourke C, Douglas K, Porter R (2010) Processing of facial emotion expression in major depression: a review. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 44(8):681–696

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley BP, Mogg K, White J, Groom C, de Bono J (1999) Attentional bias for emotional faces in generalized anxiety disorder. Br J Clin Psychol 38(3):267–278

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brennan PA, Hammen C, Andersen MJ, Bor W, Najman JM, Williams GM (2000) Chronicity, severity, and timing of maternal depressive symptoms: relationships with child outcomes at age 5. Dev Psychol 36(6):759–766

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brown S, Lumley J (2000) Physical health problems after childbirth and maternal depression at six to seven months postpartum. Br J Obstet Gynaecol 107(10):1194–1201

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Camras LA (1985) Socialization of affect communication. In: Lewis M, Saarni C (eds) The socialization of emotions. Plenum Press, New York, pp 141–160

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Carton JS, Kessler EA, Pape CL (1999) Nonverbal decoding skills and relationship well-being in adults. J Nonverbal Behav 23(1):91–100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cassidy KW, Werner RS, Rourke M, Zubernis LS, Balaraman G (2003) The relationship between psychological understanding and positive social behaviors. Soc Dev 12(2):198–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demenescu LR, Kortekaas R, den Boer JA, Aleman A (2010) Impaired attribution of emotion to facial expressions in anxiety and major depression. PLoS ONE 5(12):e15058

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Denham SA, Zoller D, Couchoud EA (1994) Socialization of pre-schoolers’ emotion understanding. Dev Psychol 30(6):928–936

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denham S, Bassett H, Way E, Mincic M, Zinsser K, Graling K (2012) Pre-schoolers’ emotion knowledge: self-regulatory foundations, and predictions of early school success. Cogn Emot 26(4):667–679

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Diego MA, Field T, Hart S, Hernandez-Reif M, Jones N, Cullen C et al (2002) Facial expressions and EEG in infants of intrusive and withdrawn mothers with depressive symptoms. Depress Anxiety 15(1):10–17

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn J, Bretherton I, Munn P (1987) Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children. Dev Psychol 23(1):132–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ensor R, Hughes C (2005) More than talk: relations between emotion understanding and positive behaviour in toddlers. Br J Dev Psychol 23(3):343–363

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman R, Granat A, Pariente C, Kanety H, Kuint J, Gilboa-Schechtman E (2009) Maternal depression and anxiety across the postpartum year and infant social engagement, fear regulation, and stress reactivity. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 48(9):919–927

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gathercole SE, Baddeley AD (1993) Working memory and language. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Hillsdale

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasheen C, Richardson GA, Fabio A (2010) A systematic review of the effects of postnatal maternal anxiety on children. Arch Womens Ment Health 13(1):61–74

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grimm H, Aktas M, Frevert S (2001) Sprachentwicklungstest für drei- bis fünfjährige Kinder. Hogrefe, Göttingen

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunlicks ML, Weissman MM (2008) Change in child psychopathology with improvement in parental depression: a systematic review. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 47(4):379–389

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gur RC, Erwin RJ, Gur RE, Zwil AS, Heimberg C, Kraemer HC (1992) Facial emotion discrimination: II. Behavioral findings in depression. Psychiatry Res 42(3):241–251

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Halberstadt AG (1991) Toward an ecology of expressiveness: family socialization in particular and a model in general. In: Feldman RS, Rimé B (eds) Fundamentals of nonverbal behavior. Cambridge University Press Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, New York, pp 106–160

    Google Scholar 

  • Halberstadt AG, Denham SA, Dunsmore JC (2001) Affective social competence. Soc Dev 10(1):79–119

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrigan JA (1984) The effects of task order on children’s identification of facial expressions. Motiv Emot 8(2):157–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herba C, Phillips M (2004) Annotation: development of facial expression recognition from childhood to adolescence: behavioural and neurological perspectives. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 45(7):1185–1198

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hess U, Kappas A, Scherer KR (1988) Multichannel communication of emotion: synthetic signal production. In: Scherer KR (ed) Facets of emotion: recent research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Hillsdale, pp 161–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Izard C, Fine S, Schultz D, Mostow A, Ackerman B, Youngstrom E (2001a) Emotion knowledge as a predictor of social behavior and academic competence in children at risk. Psychol Sci 12(1):18–23

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Izard C, Fine S, Schultz D, Mostow A, Ackerman B, Youngstrom E (2001b) Emotion knowledge as a predictor of social behavior and academic competence in children at risk: erratum. Psychol Sci 12(4):352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins JM, Turrell SL, Kogushi Y, Lollis S, Ross HS (2003) A longitudinal investigation of the dynamics of mental state talk in families. Child Dev 74(3):905–920

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kaitz M, Maytal H (2005) Interactions between anxious mothers and their infants: an integration of theory and research findings. Infant Ment Health J 26(6):570–597

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kingston D, Tough S, Whitfield H (2012) Prenatal and postpartum maternal psychological distress and infant development: a systematic review. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 43(5):683–714

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • LaBounty J, Wellman HM, Olson S, Lagattuta K, Liu D (2008) Mothers’ and fathers’ use of internal state talk with their young children. Soc Dev 17(4):757–775

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lecce S, Caputi M, Pagnin A (2009) I know what you mean: a study of individual differences in children’s internal state talk in relation to school competence. Riv Psicolinguistica Appl 9(3):83–98

    Google Scholar 

  • LeMoult J, Joormann J, Sherdell L, Wright Y, Gotlib IH (2009) Identification of emotional facial expressions following recovery from depression. J Abnorm Psychol 118(4):828–833

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leppänen JM (2006) Emotional information processing in mood disorders: a review of behavioral and neuroimaging findings. Curr Opin Psychiatry 19(1):34–39

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Masi G, Millepiedi S, Mucci M, Poli P, Bertini N, Milantoni L (2004) Generalized anxiety disorder in referred children and adolescents. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 43(6):752–760

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McClure EB (2000) A meta-analytic review of sex differences in facial expression processing and their development in infants, children, and adolescents. Psychol Bull 126(3):424–453

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meadows S (1996) Parenting behaviour and children’s cognitive development. Psychology/Erlbaum (Uk) Taylor & Fr, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohlman J, Carmin CN, Price RB (2007) Jumping to interpretations: social anxiety disorder and the identification of emotional facial expressions. Behav Res Ther 45(3):591–599

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murray L, Cooper PJ (1997) Postpartum depression and child development. Psychol Med 27(2):253–260

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murray L, Sinclair D, Cooper P, Ducournau P, Turner P (1999) The socioemotional development of 5-year-old children of postnatally depressed mothers. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 40(8):1259–1271

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murray L, Cooper PJ, Wilson A, Romaniuk H (2003) Controlled trial of the short- and long-term effect of psychological treatment of post-partum depression. 2. Impact on the mother–child relationship and child outcome. Br J Psychiatry 182(5):420–427

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson CA, de Haan M (1997) A neurobehavioral approach to the recognition of facial expressions in infancy. In: Russell JA, Fernández-Dols JM (eds) The psychology of facial expression. Cambridge University Press Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, New York, pp 176–204

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Nicol-Harper R, Harvey AG, Stein A (2007) Interactions between mothers and infants: impact of maternal anxiety. Infant Behav Dev 30(1):161–167

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor TG, Heron J, Golding J, Glover V (2003) Maternal antenatal anxiety and behavioural/emotional problems in children: a test of a programming hypothesis. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 44(7):1025–1036

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Overman WH, Bachevalier J, Schuhmann E, Ryan P (1996) Cognitive gender differences in very young children parallel biologically based cognitive gender differences in monkeys. Behav Neurosci 110(4):673–684

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Piteo AM, Yelland LN, Makrides M (2012) Does maternal depression predict developmental outcome in 18 month old infants? Early Hum Dev 88(8):651–655

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Quevedo LA, Silva RA, Godoy R, Jansen K, Matos MB, Tavares Pinheiro KA et al (2012) The impact of maternal post‐partum depression on the language development of children at 12 months. Child Care Health Dev 38(3):420–424

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reck C (2007) Postpartale Depression: Mögliche Auswirkungen auf die frühe Mutter-Kind-Interaktion und Ansätze zur psychotherapeutischen Behandlung. Prax Kinderpsychol Kinderpsychiatr 56(3):234–244

  • Reck C, Struben K, Backenstrass M, Stefenelli U, Reinig K, Fuchs T et al (2008) Prevalence, onset and comorbidity of postpartum anxiety and depressive disorders. Acta Psychiatr Scand 118(6):459–468

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reck C, Noe D, Stefenelli U, Fuchs T, Cenciotti F, Stehle E et al (2011) Interactive coordination of currently depressed inpatient mothers and their infants during the postpartum period. Infant Ment Health J 32(5):542–562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silverman WK, Cerny JA, Nelles WB, Burke AE (1988) Behavior problems in children of parents with anxiety disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 27(6):779–784

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sinclair D, Murray L (1998) Effects of postnatal depression on children’s adjustment in school. Br J Psychiatry 172:58–63

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stein A, Gath DH, Bucher J, Bond A, Day A, Cooper PJ (1991) The relationship between post-natal depression and mother-child interaction. Br J Psychiatry 158(1):46–52

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stein A, Arteche A, Lehtonen A, Craske M, Harvey A, Counsell N et al (2010) Interpretation of infant facial expression in the context of maternal postnatal depression. Infant Behav Dev 33(3):273–278

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stein A, Craske MG, Lehtonen A, Harvey A, Savage-McGlynn E, Davies B et al (2012) Maternal cognitions and mother–infant interaction in postnatal depression and generalized anxiety disorder. J Abnorm Psychol 121(4):795–809

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Striano T, Brennan PA, Vanman EJ (2002) Maternal depressive symptoms and 6-month-old infants’ sensitivity to facial expressions. Infancy 3(1):115–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Süss-Burghart H (2003) Die Validität des Sprachtests “SETK 3-5” im Vergleich mit “K-ABC”-Subtests und dem “AWST 3-6”. Frühförderung interdisziplinär 22(3):128–134

    Google Scholar 

  • Taumoepeau M, Ruffman T (2008) Stepping stones to others’ minds: maternal talk relates to child mental state language and emotion understanding at 15, 24, and 33 months. Child Dev 79(2):284–302

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tronick E, Reck C (2009) Infants of depressed mothers. Harv Rev Psychiatry 17(2):147–156

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vellante M, Baron-Cohen S, Melis M, Marrone M, Petretto DR, Masala C et al (2013) The ‘Reading the mind in the Eyes’ test: systematic review of psychometric properties and a validation study in Italy. Cogn Neuropsychiatry 18(4):326–354

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walker-Andrews AS (1997) Infants’ perception of expressive behaviors: differentiation of multimodal information. Psychol Bull 121(3):437–456

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wenzel A, Haugen EN, Jackson LC, Robinson K (2003) Prevalence of generalized anxiety at eight weeks postpartum. Arch Womens Ment Health 6(1):43–49

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Widen SC, Russell JA (2003) A closer look at pre-schoolers’ freely produced labels for facial expressions. Dev Psychol 39(1):114–128

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wittchen H-U, Wunderlich U, Gruschwitz S, Zaudig M (1997a) SKID-I. Strukturiertes Klinisches Interview für DSM-IV. Achse I: Psychische Störungen. Interviewheft. (pp. XI, 122 S. & Beurteilungsheft). Hogrefe, Göttingen

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittchen H-U, Zaudig M, Fydrich T (Eds.) (1997) Strukturiertes klinisches Interview für DSM-IV: SKID; eine deutschsprachige, erweiterte Bearbeitung der amerikanischen Originalversion des SCID. Göttingen [u.a.]: Hogrefe

  • Wu YP, Selig JP, Roberts MC, Steele RG (2011) Trajectories of postpartum maternal depressive symptoms and children’s social skills. J Child Fam Stud 20(4):414–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The study was supported by grants from the Koehler and Jung Foundation and the Jacobs Foundation. We would like to thank the mothers participating in the study as well as the maternity clinics and their staff in Heidelberg and Darmstadt for their willingness to cooperate and for their support of this research project.

Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest, including specific financial interests and relationships and affiliations relevant to the subject of our manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, Vossstraße 2, 69115, Heidelberg, Germany

    Susanne Meiser, Anna-Lena Zietlow & Corinna Reck

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24/25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany

    Susanne Meiser

  3. Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilians University, Leopoldstraße 13, 80802, Munich, Germany

    Corinna Reck

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 50923, Köln, Germany

    Birgit Träuble

Authors
  1. Susanne Meiser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anna-Lena Zietlow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Corinna Reck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Birgit Träuble
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susanne Meiser.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Meiser, S., Zietlow, AL., Reck, C. et al. The impact of postpartum depression and anxiety disorders on children’s processing of facial emotional expressions at pre-school age. Arch Womens Ment Health 18, 707–716 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-015-0519-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-015-0519-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation