Home Visiting and Antenatal Depression Affect the Quality of Mother and Child Interactions in South Africa.

Objective: To examine whether maternal depressed mood at birth moderated the protective effect of a home-visiting intervention on the quality of caregiving for children growing up in a low- and middle-income country.

Method: Almost all pregnant mothers in 24 Cape Town neighborhoods were recruited into a cluster randomized controlled trial matched by neighborhoods to the Philani home-visiting condition (HVC) or the standard care condition (SC). At 3 years after birth, the quality of mother-child interactions between HVC and SC mothers with and without antenatal depressed mood was assessed in a representative subset by rating videotaped observations of mother-child interactions on 10 dimensions of caregiving.