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Updated: Apr 19, 2026
Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
Published on: June 13, 2021
Maternal depression symptoms, unhealthy diet and child emotional-behavioural dysregulation
L Pina-Camacho1, S K Jensen2, D Gaysina3
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,Institute of Psychiatry,King's College London,London,UK.
Insights
Maternal depression and unhealthy diets during pregnancy are linked to child emotional problems. These factors, both together and independently, impact child development up to age seven.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Maternal and child health
- Nutritional science
Background:
- Maternal depression and poor diet are known risks for child emotional-behavioral issues.
- Their developmental interplay during pregnancy and postpartum is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between maternal depression and unhealthy diet during pregnancy and postpartum.
- To examine their combined and independent effects on child emotional-behavioral dysregulation from ages 2 to 7.
Main Methods:
- Utilized path analysis on a large prospective birth cohort (7814 mother-child pairs).
- Assessed maternal depression symptoms and unhealthy diet during pregnancy and postpartum.
- Evaluated child emotional-behavioral dysregulation at ages 2, 4, and 7 years.
Main Results:
- Prenatal maternal depression predicted unhealthy diets (prenatal and postnatal) and child dysregulation up to age 7.
- Both prenatal maternal depression and unhealthy diet independently predicted child dysregulation up to age 7.
- Findings remained robust after controlling for confounders like parity, birth complications, poverty, and maternal education.
Conclusions:
- Maternal depression and unhealthy diet exhibit significant developmental associations.
- These factors act as independent risk factors for adverse child development.
Background:
Maternal depression and unhealthy diet are well-known risk factors for adverse child emotional-behavioural outcomes, but their developmental relationships during the prenatal and postnatal periods are largely uncharted. This study sought to examine the inter-relationships between maternal depression symptoms and unhealthy diet (assessed during pregnancy and postnatal periods) in relation to child emotional-behavioural dysregulation (assessed at the ages of 2, 4 and 7 years).
Method:
In a large prospective birth cohort of 7814 mother-child pairs, path analysis was used to examine the independent and inter-related associations of maternal depression symptoms and unhealthy diet with child dysregulation.
Results:
Higher prenatal maternal depression symptoms were prospectively associated with higher unhealthy diet, both during pregnancy and the postnatal period, which, in turn, was associated with higher child dysregulation up to the age of 7 years. In addition, during pregnancy, higher maternal depression symptoms and unhealthy diet were each independently associated with higher child dysregulation up to the age of 7 years. These results were robust to other prenatal, perinatal and postnatal confounders (such as parity and birth complications, poverty, maternal education, etc.).
Conclusions:
Maternal depression symptoms and unhealthy diet show important developmental associations, but are also independent risk factors for abnormal child development.
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