Trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 years
Abstract Aims. Parental postpartum depressive symptoms have been extensively studied, but the combined longitudinal depression trajectories of parents and their long-term development beyond the postpartum period remain largely underexplored. We identified dyadic longitudinal depressive symptom traj...
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Cambridge University Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2045796025000174/type/journal_article |
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| author | Zsófia Csajbók Jakub Fořt Pavla Brennan Kearns |
| author_facet | Zsófia Csajbók Jakub Fořt Pavla Brennan Kearns |
| author_sort | Zsófia Csajbók |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract
Aims. Parental postpartum depressive symptoms have been extensively studied, but the combined longitudinal depression trajectories of parents and their long-term development beyond the postpartum period remain largely underexplored. We identified dyadic longitudinal depressive symptom trajectories in new parents, followed over an 11-year period, and compared parental characteristics, as well as child temperament and mental health factors, across different parental trajectory classes.
Methods. A prenatal cohort of 5,518 couples was studied. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale at eight time points: in the prenatal stage, in the newborn stage, and at 6 months, 18 months, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years and 11 years after the birth of the child.
Results. Dyadic Latent Class Growth Modelling identified five classes of couples: (1) mother has elevated depressive symptoms, father is non-depressed (24%); (2) both mother and father have elevated depressive symptoms (20%); (3) both mother and father are constantly non-depressed (42%); (4) both mother and father are constantly depressed (5%); and (5) mother is constantly depressed, father has elevated depressive symptoms (9%). Relationship maintenance (particularly being married or separated) was the most strongly associated with the classes. Socio-economic resources, emotional well-being, health, obstetric history and parental background also served as meaningful covariates. Child temperament and mental health showed weak correlations with parental trajectory classes.
Conclusions. Parents with postpartum depressive symptoms often experience depressive symptoms long-term. Separated parents are particularly vulnerable to adverse depressive trajectories. Our findings underscore the importance of dyadic methods in estimating unique combinations of parental depression trajectories.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9334dda0f578478f9589a8fbf5e7ca8e |
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| issn | 2045-7960 2045-7979 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
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| series | Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-9334dda0f578478f9589a8fbf5e7ca8e2025-08-20T02:16:55ZengCambridge University PressEpidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences2045-79602045-79792025-01-013410.1017/S2045796025000174Trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 yearsZsófia Csajbók0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5800-1597Jakub Fořt1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1980-3607Pavla Brennan Kearns2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9282-9363Department of Psychology and Life Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech RepublicDepartment of Psychology and Life Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech RepublicDepartment of Epidemiology, Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech RepublicAbstract Aims. Parental postpartum depressive symptoms have been extensively studied, but the combined longitudinal depression trajectories of parents and their long-term development beyond the postpartum period remain largely underexplored. We identified dyadic longitudinal depressive symptom trajectories in new parents, followed over an 11-year period, and compared parental characteristics, as well as child temperament and mental health factors, across different parental trajectory classes. Methods. A prenatal cohort of 5,518 couples was studied. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale at eight time points: in the prenatal stage, in the newborn stage, and at 6 months, 18 months, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years and 11 years after the birth of the child. Results. Dyadic Latent Class Growth Modelling identified five classes of couples: (1) mother has elevated depressive symptoms, father is non-depressed (24%); (2) both mother and father have elevated depressive symptoms (20%); (3) both mother and father are constantly non-depressed (42%); (4) both mother and father are constantly depressed (5%); and (5) mother is constantly depressed, father has elevated depressive symptoms (9%). Relationship maintenance (particularly being married or separated) was the most strongly associated with the classes. Socio-economic resources, emotional well-being, health, obstetric history and parental background also served as meaningful covariates. Child temperament and mental health showed weak correlations with parental trajectory classes. Conclusions. Parents with postpartum depressive symptoms often experience depressive symptoms long-term. Separated parents are particularly vulnerable to adverse depressive trajectories. Our findings underscore the importance of dyadic methods in estimating unique combinations of parental depression trajectories. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2045796025000174/type/journal_articledepressive symptomsdyadic trajectorieslatent trajectoriespostpartum depressionrelationship maintenance |
| spellingShingle | Zsófia Csajbók Jakub Fořt Pavla Brennan Kearns Trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 years Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences depressive symptoms dyadic trajectories latent trajectories postpartum depression relationship maintenance |
| title | Trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 years |
| title_full | Trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 years |
| title_fullStr | Trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 years |
| title_full_unstemmed | Trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 years |
| title_short | Trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 years |
| title_sort | trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 years |
| topic | depressive symptoms dyadic trajectories latent trajectories postpartum depression relationship maintenance |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2045796025000174/type/journal_article |
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