Influence of post-partum depression at parental educational practices

Abstract

Maternal emotional health is one of the most important factors for mother-infant interaction and, consequently, for child development. This study compared the parental educational practices of mothers of infants with and without indicators of postpartum depression and correlated these variables for each group. To investigate the indicators of postpartum depression, sixty mothers of babies responded to the Edinburgh Post-Partum Depression Scale (EPDS). Parental educational practices were identified through the Inventory of Parenting Styles for Parents and Babies (IEPMB). The results of the comparison of parental practices of mothers with indicators of postpartum depression (G1) and mothers without indicators (G2) indicated that G1 mothers significantly emitted more practices of “inconsistent punishment” (p = 0.001) and “relaxed discipline” (P = 0.037) than the mothers from G2. The comparison of Parenting Styles of G1 and G2 mothers showed that mothers from G1 used significantly more “inconsistent punishment” (p=0.001) and “relaxed discipline” practices (p=0.037) than mothers from G2. The presence of symptoms of postpartum depression was negatively correlated with the “positive monitoring” (p=0.048) practice and positively with “inconsistent punishment” (p=0.001) and “relaxed discipline” practices (p=0.01). The obtained data aggregate information on educational practices of mothers of babies and maternal emotional health, helping elaborate interventions that offer therapeutic support to mothers with psychological disorders of the puerperium, avoiding their effects on their practices and, consequently, on the development of their babies.

Keywords: parenting practices, postpartum depression, child development.