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Do infants of depressed mothers cry more than other infants?
J Milgrom1, D T Westley, P I McCloud
1Department of Clinical Psychology, Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia.
Objective:
This study compared the crying behaviour of infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers at 3 and 6 months of age.
Methodology:
Twenty-nine depressed and 44 non-depressed mothers, their infants and partners participated in this study. Mothers were asked to complete 24-hour diaries of the amount their infants cried for 1 week.
Results:
The diurnal variations in crying patterns of infants of depressed and non-depressed mothers were not significantly different. However, infants of depressed mothers were found to cry significantly more in total per day than infants of non-depressed mothers at 3 months of age, but not at 6 months. The results could not be explained by differences in infant temperament.
Conclusion:
Maternal depression may be a contributory factor to infant crying at 3 months of age.
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