Maternal low- and high-depressive symptoms and safety concerns for low-income preschool children

Our objective was to examine the relationship between low- and high-level depressive symptoms in mothers' and children's risks in the areas of home and car safety, monitoring, and exposure to violence.

Participants included 978 mothers of preschool-age children who were interviewed about their home environment and screened for maternal depression.

Whereas only 5.7% scored at high depressive levels on the screen, another 21.3% scored at low depressive levels. Logistic regression analyses controlling for demographics revealed that children were significantly more likely to experience home safety risks in 6 of 7 areas when mothers reported either low or high levels of depressive symptoms.

Results suggest that children whose mothers experience even low-level depressive symptoms are at increased risk for safety problems in the home environment, pointing to the need for screening and interventions to reduce the risk of injury.