ArticleEpidemiology and psychiatric sciences2021
Income disparity in school readiness and the mediating role of perinatal maternal mental health: a longitudinal birth cohort study.
Article in Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Parental depressive symptoms link family income to preschool child mental health in Western China.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Perinatal mental health in Singapore-prevalence, knowledge, attitudes, and practices.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Associations between sleep trajectories up to 54 months and cognitive school readiness in 4 year old preschool children.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- The future of evolutionary medicine: sparking innovation in biomedicine and public health.Frontiers in science · 2023Article
- Article
- A Golden Thread approach to transforming Maternal and Child Health in Singapore.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- Transdisciplinary research and clinical priorities for better health.PLoS medicine · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsThere is compelling evidence for gradient effects of household income on school readiness. Potential mechanisms are described, yet the growth curve trajectory of maternal mental health in a child's early life has not been thoroughly investigated. We aimed to examine the relationships between household incomes, maternal mental health trajectories from antenatal to the postnatal period, and school readiness.
methodsProspective data from 505 mother-child dyads in a birth cohort in Singapore were used, including household income, repeated measures of maternal mental health from pregnancy to 2-years postpartum, and a range of child behavioural, socio-emotional and cognitive outcomes from 2 to 6 years of age. Antenatal mental health and its trajectory were tested as mediators in the latent growth curve models.
resultsHousehold income was a robust predictor of antenatal maternal mental health and all child outcomes. Between children from the bottom and top household income quartiles, four dimensions of school readiness skills differed by a range of 0.52 (95% Cl: 0.23, 0.67) to 1.21 s.d. (95% CI: 1.02, 1.40). Thirty-eight percent of pregnant mothers in this cohort were found to have perinatal depressive and anxiety symptoms in the subclinical and clinical ranges. Poorer school readiness skills were found in children of these mothers when compared to those of mothers with little or no symptoms. After adjustment of unmeasured confounding on the indirect effect, antenatal maternal mental health provided a robust mediating path between household income and multiple school readiness outcomes (χ2 126.05, df 63, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.031, CFI = 0.980, SRMR = 0.034).
conclusionsPregnant mothers with mental health symptoms, particularly those from economically-challenged households, are potential targets for intervention to level the playing field of their children.
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