Intergenerational research including mental health

The importance of early life experience for future health is well recognised. It has been shown that investment during pregnancy and the early postnatal years has the best rate of return for future health.

This research theme focuses on the effects of prenatal and postnatal exposures (such as maternal depression) on offspring outcomes and aims to better understand the mechanisms by which exposure to depression at different times can affect child outcomes including future psychopathology. The role of parenting as a mediator is of particular interest along with better ways of measuring interactions between a mother and their infant. The latter work is undertaken in collaboration with the data capture theme in the IEU. 

There is also work on the development and evaluation of complex interventions to improve maternal and paternal depression and child outcomes. This group hosts the IMPRovE health integration team that aims to improve the identification of, services and support for, parents with mental health issues before and after the birth of their child.

The group has links with academics leading the Pelotas birth cohorts in Brazil and the Postgraduate Programme in Epidemiology at the Universidade Federal de Pelotas. We also have close links with Professor Alan Stein (Oxford University) and Dr Heather O’Mahen (University of Exeter).