Objective: This systematic review aims to thoroughly examine the current understanding of the effect of maternal depression exposure on the executive functions of offspring.
Methods: Following the PRISMA statement, a comprehensive search for peer-reviewed cohort studies was performed on Pubmed, ScienceDirect, LILACS, PsychINFO, and SciELO. Study quality was assessed using the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-sectional studies. The evidence was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation.
Results: This review analyzed 33 cohort studies from different countries with a total of 38,981 participants. Twenty-four studies confirmed the hypothesis of the harmful effect of maternal depressive symptoms on the performance of children's executive functions. However, a high heterogeneity among studies was found, and meta-analysis was not feasible. Fetal programming, genetics, and parental practices have been identified as potential mechanisms that can affect the executive functions of children born to mothers who have experienced depressive symptoms.
Conclusions: The results suggest a negative association between maternal depressive symptoms and offspring executive functioning. Further studies on the effects of chronicity/severity of maternal symptoms and changes in executive functions in different sensitive periods are needed.
Keywords: Maternal health; cohort studies; executive control.