Depression Is Not Gender-Biased: Maternal and Paternal Depression and Early Parent-Infant Interactions

Abstract

Experiencing the baby blues-feeling increased levels of stress, sadness, loneliness, and anxiety-is common for many new parents during the immediate days or weeks after giving birth. But for approximately 14% of new mothers and 4% of fathers [1], the blues fails to resolve and turns into a severe and lasting form of postpartum depression, affecting parents' daily lives, personal relationships, and their infant's development. Infants of depressed parents are at increased risk for developmental problems, including mental health problems, such as affective disorders or behav-ioral conduct problems later in life [2]. This increased child vulnerability is often attributed to differences in early caregiving and parenting practices, linked to par-ents' postpartum condition. To explore potential mechanisms underlying these associations , we will discuss several factors linked to parental depression and adverse infant developmental outcomes. First, we will review the characteristics and the importance of the early parent-infant interaction based on the mutual regulation model [3-5]. Second, we will discuss how interactional processes may be altered by parental gender differences in parenting style and psychopathology, as well as research indicating that infant boys are at higher risk for adverse effects of parental depression than girls. Finally, we will consider environmental and biological factors that may contribute to individual differences in infant risk or resilience beyond parent-infant interactional processes in the context of parental depression.