Study suggests higher levels of antisocial behaviour in children of mothers with depression

This study sits rather uneasily with me, though it’s worth bearing in mind that I only had access to a few brief paragraphs, rather than the entire paper.

However, for what it’s worth, researchers at King’s College, London, studied 1,116 sets of twins, finding much higher levels of antisocial behaviour in 7-year-olds whose mothers had suffered depression during the child’s first five years of life.

The greatest risk of “problem behaviours” were in children of mothers who also exhibited signs of antisocial personality disorder.

A family history of antisocial behavior “accounted for approximately one-third of the observed association between maternal depression and children’s antisocial behavior,” the study authors explained in a prepared statement. They say the study findings also suggest a strong environmental component linking exposure to a mother’s depression with behavioral problems in her offspring.

The UK team believe a combination of three factors might explain the association between antisocial behavior in children and depression in mothers: First, depressed women are more likely to have antisocial personality traits related to depression; second, they are more likely to have children with men who also display antisocial behaviors; and third, children of depressed mothers may simply be genetically predisposed to antisocial disorders.

So many questions. What are we labelling “antisocial behaviour”? Or “depression”? How long was the mother diagnosed as having depression — the whole five years or just portions of time?

An interesting study, I’m sure, but as usual, it could be very easy to make sweeping generalisations from the small amount of information currently published.