Pathways for Intergenerational Transmission of Depression: Differentiating between Positive and Negative Maternal Mental Health

Our understanding of the pathways by which maternal mental health influences the risk for psychopathology in the offspring remains incomplete despite an obvious importance for prevention. This gap, in part, derives from a largely unique focus on maternal symptoms of psychopathology despite evidence for an influence of positive mental health states on a wide range of neurodevelopmental outcomes in the offspring. In this analysis we used a prospective longitudinal cohort study to compare the influence of positive and negative maternal mental health conditions on offspring language and executive function as potential mediators for the influence of maternal mental health on depressive symptoms in the offspring. Our results show that language and executive function were significantly and specifically correlated to positive and negative maternal mental health, respectively. Both functions were significantly correlated with self-reported depressive symptoms at 9 years of age. A serial mediation model showed that language mediated the relation between positive maternal mental health and childhood depressive symptoms. In contrast, executive function mediated the relation between negative maternal mental health and childhood depressive symptoms. Neuroimaging analysis showed that positive and negative maternal mental health were linked to different offspring functional connectivity profiles and highlight the Orbitofrontal-Somatomotor Network B connectivity as a possible neural pathway for the impact of positive maternal mental health on offspring language ability. These results highlight the different operative pathways that link positive and negative maternal mental health to childhood depressive symptoms and provide potential modifiable targets for early intervention.