Interactions of depressed mothers and their infants: a review of the literature

This paper reviews various research conducted to understand the effect of maternal depression on mother-infant interactions. It begins by reviewing theories on infant behavior that focuses on self-regulation and theories on mothers\u27 behavior, including the causes of depression following the birth of a child (i.e. postpartum depression). A review of published empirical results of mother/infant interactions are presented along with descriptions of the coding systems used in these studies. Evidence suggests that infant behavior and emotion is significantly affected by the emotional state of the mother