Mothering Our Mental Health: How Postpartum Mental Health Impacts Children's Mental Health in Adulthood

Abstract

The current study, driven by Attachment Theory, examines the previously untested relationship between postpartum maternal mental health and the mental health of children in young adulthood. To test this relationship, the study uses data from four waves of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (previously known as the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study). Findings from multiple logistic regression models reveal that postpartum feelings of anxiety were associated with the child reporting feelings of anxiety as an adult; while meeting depression criteria postpartum was associated with the child meeting the same criteria in young adulthood. Additionally, mental illness measured by diagnostic criteria yielded different results than mental illness measured by reporting feelings of the foundational symptom. Further, non-Hispanic Black participants were significantly less likely to report feelings of depression and anxiety across all measures and controls; and socioeconomic status measured by relation to the poverty line was not a significant indicator. The most significant finding of this study was the effect of postpartum maternal mental health on the mental health of their children in young adulthood, a relationship which varied depending on the measurement used. This highlights the need for mental health research and data collection to not limit operationalizations to diagnostic criteria to represent experiences with mental illness. This study contributes to scholarship by extending research of the mother-child mental health relationship into adulthood rather than limiting to childhood and adolescence and expands typical methodology by measuring anxiety and depression using both diagnostic criteria and reporting of the most traditional symptom. Now that this study has established a relationship between postpartum maternal mental health and the mental health of children as young adults, multiple avenues for further research can be pursued.