Maternal Depression and Infant’s Bias Towards Faces

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between maternal depression and infant bias toward faces. Three-month-old infants were shown faces and objects and their looking times were recorded. The results showed that there was a significant correlation between maternal depression and infant face preference. Specifically, infants who had mothers with higher depression symptomology showed longer looking times to the faces versus the objects. This finding suggests that maternal depression may shape the development of social information processing skills very early in life