Parenting Journal · Volume 1 · Issue 1 · Licensed source edition
The Effect of Maternal Depression on Infant Attachment: A Systematic Review
Originally published 2020-04-14 · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) · DOI 10.3390/ijerph17082675 ↗
Editorial reading guide · Trust
Does parental depression automatically determine an infant’s attachment?
The review provides an important counterweight to simplistic blame: the relationship between maternal depression and attachment was mixed and depended on how and when depression was measured.
Who was studied?
Twenty-nine empirical studies of maternal depression and infant attachment
Age / stage: Infancy; attachment measured before 24 months
Read with three questions
- How did interview-based and questionnaire-based depression measures differ?
- Why did the timing of depression assessment matter?
- What other caregiving and family factors were insufficiently addressed?
Keep the limits in view
The studies used diverse methods and some were cross-sectional. The review found an equivocal, dynamic relationship; it does not justify predicting any individual baby’s attachment from a parent’s diagnosis.
The text below is the original article’s licensed repository edition. Its wording is not rewritten. Use the Paper Agent beside the text to locate evidence; open the source for figures, tables and complete context.
Opening the verified paper and agent…
Checking the article identity, license record, and saved source text.
Open the repository recordAttribution & reuse
Follow the original.
Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Andrzej Śliwerski; Karolina Kossakowska; Karolina Jarecka; Julita Świtalska; Eleonora Bielawska-Batorowicz (2020). The Effect of Maternal Depression on Infant Attachment: A Systematic Review International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082675
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-04. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.