ArticleJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2023
Testing lifecourse theories characterising associations between maternal depression and offspring depression in emerging adulthood: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
Article in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Socioeconomic factors and sex effects of postpartum maternal depression on offspring internalizing symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Longitudinal maternal depression and child mental health from pregnancy to child age 7: a study of three life course frameworks.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Timing of Exposure to Parental Depression From Pregnancy to Young Adulthood and Mental Health in Adult Offspring.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- The adrenal is doing what it's supposed to do, you just don't understand it.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Association of duration and timing of household dysfunction with aggression: A Taiwan birth cohort study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Infants' empathic concern responses moderate the association between maternal and child depressive symptoms.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The association between longitudinal patterns of adverse childhood experiences, and self-harm and depression in adolescence and early adulthood: findings from the Avon longitudinal study of parents and children.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Childhood adversity and adolescent mental health: Examining cumulative and specificity effects across contexts and developmental timing.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Prenatal maternal stress: triangulating evidence for intrauterine exposure effects on birth and early childhood outcomes across multiple approaches.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- The relationship between type, timing and duration of exposure to adverse childhood experiences and adolescent self-harm and depression: findings from three UK prospective population-based cohorts.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2024Article
- Marital adjustment and depressive symptoms among Chinese perinatal women: a prospective, longitudinal cross-lagged study.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Social mobility and perinatal depression in Black women.Frontiers in health services · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMaternal depression is a major determinant of offspring mental health. Yet, little is understood about how the duration and timing of maternal depression shapes youth risk for depressive symptoms, which if understood could inform when best to intervene. This study aimed to determine how the timing and duration of maternal depression was related to offspring depression in emerging adulthood, and if these associations varied by sex.
methodsWe analysed data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (a prenatal cohort in the Avon area of England, 1991-2003), n = 3,301. We applied the structured lifecourse modelling approach to maternal depression (assessed at 13 points from prenatal period to adolescence) and emerging adult depressive symptoms (age 21). Lifecourse models assessed were accumulation (sum of timepoints when maternal depression was reported), sensitive periods (each period assessed as one during which maternal depression has a stronger effect) and instability (frequent fluctuations in maternal depression).
resultsFemale adolescents (n = 2,132) had higher SMFQ scores (mean = 6.15, SD = 5.90) than males (n = 1,169, mean = 4.87, SD = 4.82). Maternal depression was most common in the infancy period (21.2% males; 21.4% females). For males, accumulation was the most appropriate lifecourse model; for each additional period of maternal depression, depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood increased by 0.11 (95% CI: 0.07, 0.15, one-sided p value ≤ .001). For females, exposure to maternal depression was associated with increasing depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood, with the largest effect in mid-childhood (increase of 0.27 units, 95% CI 0.03-0.50, p = .015 for difference between mid-childhood and other time-periods) and a smaller, equal effect at all other time-periods (increase of 0.07 units per time-period, 95% CI: 0.03-0.12, p = .002).
conclusionsThis study highlights the importance of ongoing maternal depression for the development of depression in offspring through to emerging adulthood. Because long-term exposure to maternal depression was particularly important, early interventions are warranted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.