Women who have symptoms of depression and anxiety during pregnancy do not report concerns with their infant sons’ behaviour, but do with their daughters, according to a Cardiff University study.

As many as one in four women experience depression and/or anxiety in pregnancy and evidence suggests it can increase the risk of emotional and behavioural issues, particularly in boys.

Cardiff University said the study focused on the children of mothers who had reported symptoms of depression and anxiety in pregnancy. Specifically, the researchers looked at what early indicators of difficulties were apparent at the age of one.

Researchers identified language delays and evidence of emotional difficulties in baby boys but not in baby girls, similar to findings from other studies.

The surprising finding of this study was that the affected mothers did not pick up on their sons’ difficulties, but did perceive issues in their daughters.

Professor Rosalind John, Head of Biomedicine Division at Cardiff University, and senior author of the study, said “A key finding of our study was that mothers reporting higher depression and anxiety symptoms in pregnancy reported poor bonding, higher aggression and lower soothability for their infant only when the infant was female, and not when the infant was male.

“In contrast, our objective assessment found that male infants were more affected by maternal prenatal anxiety or depression, but this was not picked up by their mothers.”

Professor Stephanie van Goozen, co-author on the study, from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, said “Mothers who have emotional issues themselves do not recognise that their sons have problems too; if that is the case, their sons do not get the support they might need early in life.”

Rosalind John said despite girls appearing to be unaffected as babies, there could be issues later on.

She said “Although female infants appear to be more resilient early in life, depression and anxiety in the mother could have a negative impact on the mother-daughter relationship later on, increasing the risk of daughters developing difficulties later in life.”

The mothers were participating in the Grown In Wales study, which examines the relationship between prenatal mood symptoms, placental genomic characteristics and offspring outcomes.

They were asked to complete questionnaires on their one year old babies, including questions around bonding satisfaction and infant temperament.

Researchers then invited the mothers to bring their babies into a research setting for an independent assessment. This involved watching the children playing with toys and interacting with their mother.

In all, one hundred and thirteen mothers completed the questionnaire and seventy six of those attended the infant assessment.

The study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, focused on women who had elective caesarean deliveries. Rosalind John said more research was needed to replicate these findings in other groups of mothers, to include fathers, and also to understand the gender bias.