Joanna Maselko, ScD 

Within the broader question of how early life shapes life-course trajectories of mental health, Bachpan, meaning "childhood" in Urdu (previously known as the SHARE CHILD study), is a that study focuses on the early childhood mechanisms through which maternal depression, and its treatment, shapes child developmental trajectories.  

We do this through a close collaboration with an ongoing cluster RCT of a community based perinatal depression intervention in rural Pakistan (“SHARE-THPP+”, a peer led and longer duration version of the THP) and our focus is on child socioemotional, cognitive, and physical development in the first three years of life. A central question is to examine heterogeneity of treatment effects by social contextual factors such as socioeconomic status, household composition, or parenting.  

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Our Specific Aims include:

Aim 1: To evaluate the impact of a perinatal depression intervention on child outcomes

Main Hypothesis: Randomization to the intervention arm will result in improved child socioemotional, cognitive, and physical outcomes 36 months postpartum, relative to those in the control arm.

Secondary Hypotheses: (1) Children born to depressed mothers in the intervention arm will have outcomes equivalent to those whose mothers were non-depressed prenatally in the control arm; (2) The duration of exposure to maternal depression will predict child developmental outcomes.

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Aim 2: To examine the role of improved parenting as a mediator between the perinatal depression intervention and child outcomes.

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Aim 3: To determine how the effects of the perinatal depression intervention on child outcomes vary by social context factors such as family composition, socioeconomic status, and presence of interpersonal violence.

 Data collection for this project is currently ongoing. Mothers were interviewed prenatally and then mother-child dyads are assessed at 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 months post-partum.

Additionally, with economist colleagues Baranov, Bhalotra, Biroli and Adeline Delavande we are investigating women’s financial empowerment, beliefs, investments in children, and models of early human capital formation along with additional data on cortisol for mothers and children.

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Co-investigators on this project include: Siham Sikander, Atif Rahman, Lisa Bates, Elizabeth Turner, Karen O'Donnell.

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To learn more, visit the Bachpan Study website.