Post-Partum Depressive Symptoms and Child Behavior: the Mediational Role of Maternal Mind-Mindedness

The present study is aimed to verify whether depressive symptoms, measured at 87 hours (T1) and at 3 months (T2) “post-partum” are associated with maternal Mind-Mindedness (MM: the caregivers’ proclivity to adopt the intentional stance in interactions with their children) and children’s behavior (at 17 months post-partum, T3). The second aim is to investigate, at T3, whether MM mediates the relationship between depressive (somatic and cognitive) symptoms and children’s behavior. 46 mother-infant dyads participated to the study. The results showed that, T3 an impaired MM mediates the effects of the cognitive depressive symptoms on children’s internalizing behaviors. Somatic symptoms, conjointly with an impaired MM predicted children’s externalizing behaviors.