Subclinical levels of maternal depression and infant sensitivity to social contingency

• Young infants’ response to contingent and non-contingent interaction.
• Infants of non-depressed and sub-clinically depressed mothers.
• Infants of non-depressed mothers are sensitive to social contingency.
• Infants of sub-clinically depressed mothers are less sensitive to social contingency.

The aim of the study was to investigate how young infants respond to contingent and non-contingent interaction in relation to maternal level of depressive symptoms in a non-clinical sample of mothers and infants. Two groups of three-month-olds interacted with their mother who was assessed as either non-depressed or sub-clinically depressed, based on self-reported scores on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The infants were presented with a continuous image and voice of their mother in a closed circuit computer system, using the double video procedure. The experiment comprised five sequences, alternating between contingent (Live) and non-contingent (Replay) maternal behaviur in a fixed Live1–Replay1–Live2–Replay2–Live3 sequence. The infants of the sub-clinically depressed mothers showed a high gaze focus at their mother independently of the quality of interaction, while the infants of the non-depressed mothers showed a preference for looking at the mother only when the interaction with their mother was contingent. Further, the infants of the sub-clinically depressed mothers showed no differentiation in affective expression between contingent and non-contingent interactions, while the infants of the non-depressed mothers expressed more positive affect than negative affect only when the interaction with their mother was contingent. Finally, there was a significant relation between the infant's preference for looking at the mother and the infant's amount of positive affect, but this was only found for the infants of the non-depressed. These results indicate that young infants’ sensitivity to social contingency is related to maternal level of depression, even in a non-clinical sample. This expands the implications of earlier findings on the impact of maternal depression on infant sensitivity to social contingency, demonstrating that even sub-clinical levels of maternal depression may effect early interaction and child development.