ArticleChildren (Basel, Switzerland)2025
Effects of Maternal Depression and Sensitivity on Infant Emotion Regulation: The Role of Context.
Article in Children (Basel, Switzerland), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Low Pregnancy Cortisol and Infant Socioemotional Problems: The Mediating Role of Postpartum Depressive Symptoms.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Early Childhood Anxiety and Maternal Factors: Associations with State and Trait Anxiety in a Greek Cohort of Preschoolers.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION/
backgroundMaternal depression is a significant risk factor for infant emotion regulation (ER), often linked to detrimental mother-infant interactions. Individual effects of maternal depression and maternal sensitivity are known, but their combined influence on infant ER across different emotional contexts remains underexplored. This study investigates concurrent relations among maternal depression, maternal sensitivity, and infant ER in low- and high-arousal contexts in a matched sample of primarily White educated mothers.
methodsWe examined 5-month-old infants of clinically depressed and nondepressed mothers. Maternal sensitivity was coded from home observations; infant ER behaviors (e.g., gaze aversion, object-attend, self-soothing) were assessed through observation during modified Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) and fear-eliciting tasks.
resultsClinically depressed mothers exhibited lower maternal sensitivity than nondepressed mothers. Infants of depressed mothers used adaptive ER strategies less-specifically, lower monitoring and gaze aversion in the SFP, and lower gaze aversion and object-attend in the Fear task. Maternal sensitivity moderated the association between maternal depression and infant gaze aversion during the SFP and both gaze avert and object-attend during the Fear task. There was a context-specific regulatory difference for self-soothing; only infants of depressed mothers used self-soothing significantly more during the high-arousal Fear task.
conclusionsThese findings underscore the interplay between maternal clinical depression and sensitivity in affecting infant ER. Maternal sensitivity acts as a crucial buffer against the adverse effects of maternal depression on infant ER. The results also indicate that infant emotion regulation varies in different contexts of low and high arousal. Interventions that target maternal sensitivity could significantly improve emotion regulation in infants of depressed mothers.
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