Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Risk for Childhood Depression: Role of Executive Functions

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Risk for Childhood Depression: Role of Executive Functions

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

10.1016/j.jaac.2024.08.503

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2024.08.503

Meredith X. Han, Ranjani Nadarajan, Nixi Wang, Michelle Z.L. Kee, Shuping Lim, Yashna K. Sagar, Benjamin Chow, Ai Peng Tan, Bobby K. Cheon, Yuen-Siang Ang, Juan H. Zhou, Helen Y. Chen, Yap Seng Chong, Peter D. Gluckman, Michael J. Meaney, Evelyn C. Law

16 October 2024

Han, M. X., Nadarajan, R., Wang, N., Kee, M. Z. L., Lim, S., Sagar, Y. K., Chow, B., Tan, A. P., Cheon, B. K., Ang, Y.-S., Zhou, J. H., Chen, H. Y., Chong, Y. S., Gluckman, P. D., Meaney, M. J., & Law, E. C. (2025). Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Risk for Childhood Depression: Role of Executive Functions. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 64(8), 946–958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2024.08.503

Objective: Offspring of mothers with depression are at increased risk for executive function (EF) deficits and later depressive symptoms, but limited studies have examined EF as an intermediary pathway. This study examined the role of EF in mediating the association between maternal and child depressive symptoms. Method: Data were from a longitudinal birth cohort comprising 739 participants followed from the antenatal period for 12 years. Mothers completed the Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale at 26 to 28 weeks’ gestation and at 3 and 24 months postpartum. At ages 8.5 to 10 years, children self reported using the Children’s Depression Inventory, Second Edition. Task-based and parent-reported EF measures were collected at 4 time points between 3.5 and 8.5 years. Latent growth curve models examined antenatal depressive symptoms and their trajectory in contributing to cold (ie, cognitive) and hot (ie, affective) EFs. The extent to which EF mediated this association was then assessed. Results: Maternal depressive symptoms did not directly predict depressive symptoms in late childhood. Antenatal depressive symptoms predicted lower cold EF (b ¼ .13, 95% CI [0.25, 0.004]) and hot EF (b ¼ .26, 95% CI [0.38, 0.15]). Deficits in cold EF (b ¼ .26, 95% CI [0.41, 0.11]) acted as an intermediary path to depressive symptoms, whereas hot EF mediated the association between maternal and child depressive symptoms, forming an indirect path that accounted for 37.5% of the association. Conclusion: Deficits in hot EF may be a pathway in explaining the intergenerational transmission of depression. This finding suggests fostering EF skills as a potential strategy for at-risk children.

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

This research is supported by the Singapore National Research Foundation (MOH-000504 to Y.S.C.) under the Human Health and Potential Programme (RIE2025), Ministry of Education Science of Learning grant (MOESOL2021-0004 to E.C.L.), and the A*STAR Human Health and Potential Grant (H22P0M0001 to M.J.M.).

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/23388

0890-8567

Institute for Human Development and Potential

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2024.08.503