Faculty Publications

Maternal Age And Depressive Symptoms In A Low-Income Sample

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Community Psychology

Volume

36

Issue

3

First Page

399

Last Page

409

Abstract

In this study, depressive symptoms of 2,011 European-American, African-American, and Latina low-income mothers at approximately 14 months after birth of the child were examined. Maternal age was used as a predictor of depressive symptoms. Overall, 31.9% of mothers were classified as depressed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Younger mothers tended to have more depressive symptoms among European-American mothers only. Latina mothers had fewer depressive symptoms than African-American and European-American mothers. Number of children 5 years and under in the home was positively related to depressive symptoms. In addition, mothers with higher levels of self-mastery reported fewer symptoms of depression. Implications for preventing maternal depressive symptoms are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Department

Department of Design, Textiles, Gerontology, and Family Studies

Original Publication Date

4-1-2008

DOI of published version

10.1002/jcop.20201

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