title: Sleep Quality Predicts Persistence of Parental Postpartum Depressive Symptoms and Transmission of Depressive Symptoms from Mothers to Fathers.
abstract: Early parenthood is a time of chronic sleep disturbance and also of heightened depression risk. Poor sleep quality has been identified both as a predictor of postpartum depressive symptoms and as a consequence.
  
  
  
  This study sought to clarify causal pathways linking sleep and postpartum depression via longitudinal path modeling. Sleep quality at 6 months postpartum was hypothesized to exacerbate depressive symptoms from 1 month through 1 year postpartum in both mothers and fathers. Within-couple associations between sleep and depression were also tested.
  
  
  
  Data were drawn from a low-income, racially and ethnically diverse sample of 711 couples recruited after the birth of a child. Depressive symptoms were assessed at 1, 6, and 12 months postpartum, and sleep was assessed at 6 months postpartum.
  
  
  
  For both partnered mothers and fathers and for single mothers, depressive symptoms at 1 month postpartum predicted sleep quality at 6 months, which in turn predicted depressive symptoms at both 6 and 12 months. Results held when infant birth weight, breastfeeding status, and parents' race/ethnicity, poverty, education, and immigration status were controlled. Mothers' and fathers' sleep quality and depressive symptoms were correlated, and maternal sleep quality predicted paternal depressive symptoms both at 6 and at 12 months.
  
  
  
  Postpartum sleep difficulties may contribute to a vicious cycle between sleep and the persistence of depression after the birth of a child. Sleep problems may also contribute to the transmission of depression within a couple. Psychoeducation and behavioral treatments to improve sleep may benefit new parents.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. dsaxbe@usc.edu.
authors: Darby E
authors: DE
authors: Saxbe
authors: Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
authors: Christine Dunkel
authors: CD
authors: Schetter
authors: Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
authors: Christine M
authors: CM
authors: Guardino
authors: Virginia Tech Carillion Research Institute, Blacksburg, VA, 24060, USA.
authors: Sharon L
authors: SL
authors: Ramey
authors: NorthShore University HealthSystem Research Institute, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.|Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA.
authors: Madeleine U
authors: MU
authors: Shalowitz
authors: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Thorp
authors: Baltimore Healthy Start, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.
authors: Maxine
authors: M
authors: Vance
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Couples; Parents; Postpartum depression; Sleep; Sleep disturbance; Sleep duration