Young Children of Mothers with a History of Depression Show Attention Bias to Sad Faces: An Eye-tracking Study.

ABSTRACT: Maternal depression is a predictor of the emergence of depression in the offspring. Attention bias (AB) to negative emotional stimuli in children may serve as a risk factor for children of depressed parents. The present study aimed to examine the effect of maternal major depressive disorder (MDD) history on AB to emotional faces in children at age four, before the age of onset for full-blown psychiatric symptoms. The study also compared AB patterns between mothers and their offspring. Fifty-eight mothers and their four-year-old children participated in this study, of which 27 high-risk (HR) children had mothers with MDD during their children's lifetime. Attention to emotional faces was measured in both children and their mothers using an eye-tracking visual search task. HR children exhibit

SUBMITTER: Fu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11420269 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature