Trajectories of depressive symptoms of mothers and fathers over 11 years

Abstract Aims . Parental postpartum depressive symptoms have been extensively studied, but the combined longitudinal depression trajectories of parents and their long-term development beyond the postpartum period remain largely underexplored. We identified dyadic longitudinal depressive symptom trajectories in new parents, followed over an 11-year period, and compared parental characteristics, as well as child temperament and mental health factors, across different parental trajectory classes. Methods . A prenatal cohort of 5,518 couples was studied. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale at eight time points: in the prenatal stage, in the newborn stage, and at 6 months, 18 months, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years and 11 years after the birth of the child. Results . Dyadic Latent Class Growth Modelling identified five classes of couples: (1) mother has elevated depressive symptoms, father is non-depressed (24%); (2) both mother and father have elevated depressive symptoms (20%); (3) both mother and father are constantly non-depressed (42%); (4) both mother and father are constantly depressed (5%); and (5) mother is constantly depressed, father has elevated depressive symptoms (9%). Relationship maintenance (particularly being married or separated) was the most strongly associated with the classes. Socio-economic resources, emotional well-being, health, obstetric history and parental background also served as meaningful covariates. Child temperament and mental health showed weak correlations with parental trajectory classes. Conclusions . Parents with postpartum depressive symptoms often experience depressive symptoms long-term. Separated parents are particularly vulnerable to adverse depressive trajectories. Our findings underscore the importance of dyadic methods in estimating unique combinations of parental depression trajectories.