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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2006.108332v1 98/1/125    most recent Submit a response Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Surkan, P. J. Articles by Peterson, K. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Surkan, P. J. Articles by Peterson, K. E. Related Collections Obesity, Overweight, Underweight Other Child and Adolescent Health Global Health

Pamela J. Surkan, ScD, Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD, Louise M. Ryan, PhD, Lisa F. Berkman, PhD, Lina M. Carvalho Vieira, BS and Karen E. Peterson, ScD

Pamela J. Surkan, Ichiro Kawachi, Louise M. Ryan, Lisa F. Berkman, and Karen E. Peterson are with the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass. Lina M. Carvalho Vieira is with the Centro de Ciências da Natureza, Universidade Federal do Piauí, Teresina, Brazil.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Pamela J. Surkan, ScD, Harvard School of Public Health, Landmark Center, 401 Park Dr, 4th Floor West, Room 415, Boston, MA 02215 (e-mail: psurkan{at}hsph.harvard.edu).

Objectives. We assessed whether maternal depressive symptoms and parenting self-efficacy were associated with child growth delay.

Methods. We collected data from a random sample of 595 low-income mothers and their children aged 6 to 24 months in Teresina, Piauí, Brazil, including information on sociodemographic characteristics, mothers’ depressive symptoms and parenting self-efficacy, and children’s anthropometric characteristics. We used adjusted logistic regression models in our analyses.

Results. Depressive symptoms among mothers were associated with 1.8 times higher odds (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.1, 2.9) of short stature among children. Parenting self-efficacy was not associated with short stature, nor did it mediate or modify the relationship between depressive symptoms and short stature. Maternal depressive symptoms and self-efficacy were not related to child underweight.

Conclusions. Our results showed that among low-income Brazilian families maternal depressive symptoms, but not self-efficacy, were associated with short stature in children aged 6 to 24 months after adjustment for known predictors of growth.