title: Postpartum depression predicts offspring mental health problems in adolescence independently of parental lifetime psychopathology.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Postpartum depression (PPD) follows 5-15% of the life births and forms a major threat to the child's mental health and psychosocial development. However, the nature, continuance, and mediators of the association of postpartum depression (PPD) with the child's mental health are not well understood. The aim of this study was to investigate whether an association between PPD and adolescent mental problems is explained by parental psychopathology and whether the association shows specificity to the internalizing or externalizing domain.
  
  
  METHODS
  2729 adolescents aged 10-15 years from the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Life Survey (TRAILS) were included. Both PPD and parental lifetime history of psychopathology were assessed by parent report. Adolescents' psychopathology was assessed using the Achenbach scales (parent, teacher and self report). Linear regression was used to examine the association between PPD and adolescent mental health.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found a statistically significant association of adolescents' internalizing problems with maternal PPD, which remained when adjusted for parental psychopathology. We found no association for externalizing problems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Underreporting of both PPD and lifetime parental psychopathology may have occurred due to their retrospective assessment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The association of PPD with internalizing but not externalizing problems extends into adolescence. Parental psychopathology does not explain this association suggesting a direct psychological effect on the child postpartum. If this effect appears causal, early treatment of parental psychopathology may prevent internalizing psychopathology in the offspring, ultimately in adolescence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. t.verbeek@umcg.nl
authors.forename: Tjitte
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Verbeek
authors.forename: Claudi L H
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Bockting
authors.forename: Mariëlle G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: van Pampus
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ormel
authors.forename: Judith L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Meijer
authors.forename: Catharina A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hartman
authors.forename: Huibert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Burger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012189:Retrospective Studies