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Maternal Depression Case Study

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Wojcicki et al. (2015) also focuses on a sample of low-income Latino mothers and children by examining the genetic impacts on Latino preschool children, who have been exposed to maternal depression. Utilizing genomic DNA samples from 108 four-year-old children and 92 five-year-old children and their mothers, Wojcicki et al. (2015) examines the telomere length within these children. Shorter telomere length has been linked to health conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, and obesity in adults, so determining early-life risk factors can improve the health trajectories of many children (Wojcicki et al., 2015). The purpose of the study is to determine the effects that exposure to maternal depression has on telomere length in children as well as …show more content…

(2010) examines when maternal MDD has the greatest impact on child behavior. Bagner et al. (2010) focuses on the child’s first year of life, which is a sensitive period, in relation to the 175 participants, who were mothers from the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project. Bagner et al. (2010) hypothesized that mothers, who had MDD after giving birth rather than before, would have children, who were more likely to have behavioral and emotional issues due to the mother’s inability to help regulate her infant’s emotions and form a secure attachment. Additionally, Bagner et al. (2010) hypothesized that behavioral issues would be stronger among boys than girls in relation to their mother’s MDD, since previous research has shown more adverse effects on boys. The results indicate that maternal MDD during the sensitive period is significantly associated with higher child internalizing and total behavioral problems (Bagner et al., 2010). The results also suggest that there are no significant differences among the child’s gender and behavioral issues (Bagner et al., 2010). One important limitation to the study is that the children’s behaviors were also self-reported by the mothers, which could have contributed to self-reporting biases.
Besides developmental impacts in relation to emotional and behavioral issues when exposed

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