Project THRIVE at the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University has just released a new policy brief on maternal depression: Reducing Maternal Depression and Its Impact on Young Children: Toward a Responsive Early Childhood Policy Framework. The policy brief provides an overview of why it is so important to address maternal depression as a central part of the effort to ensure that all young children enter school ready to succeed. It highlights:
- what research says about the impact of maternal depression on young children, particularly infants and toddlers, and how prevalent maternal depression is;
- examples of community and programmatic strategies to reduce maternal depression and prevent negative cognitive, social emotional and behavioral impacts on young children;
- key barriers to focusing more attention to maternal depression in policies to promote healthy early child development and school readiness;
- state efforts to address policy barriers and craft more appropriate policy responses; and
- recommendations
You can download the PDF and read the executive summary here.
Project THRIVE is a public policy analysis and education initiative at the National Center for Children in Poverty to promote healthy child development and to provide policy support to the State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) initiatives funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
Part of NCCP’s longstanding commitment to promote improved state early childhood policies and practices, the goal of Project THRIVE is to help states strengthen and expand their early childhood systems, paying particular attention to strategies that improve services for those at highest risk and that help reduce disparities in access and quality of care to early childhood health and mental health.
