Trajectories of Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Behavioral Problems of Children at Four Years of Age: Evidence from the Panel Study of Korean Children

The present study identifies trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms in Korean contexts and explores their associations with children’s behavioral problems at four years of age. Using the Panel Study of Korean Children, depressive symptoms of 1,964 mothers were collected at five time points (right after childbirth at hospitals, one month postpartum, four months postpartum, 24 months postpartum, and 48 months postpartum). These data were analyzed using latent class growth analysis. Korean mothers’ depressive symptoms from childbirth to 48 months postpartum were best described by five trajectories: No Symptoms (30.8 %), Low Symptoms (46.8 %), Increasing Symptoms (9.2 %), Persistent Moderate Symptoms (8.8 %), and High Symptoms (4.3 %). In addition, trajectories of depressive symptoms of Korean mothers were found to have meaningful associations with their children’s behavioral problems at four years of age. However, the complex results of the present study provided no clear answers regarding how chronicity, severity, and timing of maternal depressive symptoms associate with young children’s behavioral problems.