Maternal sleep and depressive symptoms Links with infant Negative Affectivity

This study assessed whether elevated seventies of maternal depression and disturbed maternal sleep would be associated with maternal perceptions of higher Negative Affectivity of her infant Sixty-nine mothers participated in this study The study was part of a larger randomized controlled study testing the efficacy of acupuncture as a treatment for depression during pregnancy The present study focused on data collected at 6 months postpartum in a naturalistic follow-up design using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) maternal sleep diaries (completed daily for 1 week) and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) Regression analyses revealed that (a) maternal depression severity was a significant predictor of the IBQ-R Distress and Falling Reactivity scale and (b) poor maternal sleep was a significant predictor of the IBQ-R Sadness scale Our findings support previous findings of significant links between maternal emotional distress and perceived Negative Affectivity of her infants temperament and provide a novel insight linking maternal poor sleep with perceived sadness of the infant (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved