According to a new study, women who are depressed during pregnancy are more likely to have children at an increased risk of anti-social behavior, including physical aggression as teens.

In addition, women in the study who were themselves aggressive as teenagers were more likely to experience depression during pregnancy.

In what is a mother’s history predicting anti-social behaviour in her children, British researchers also found women prone to aggressive and disruptive behaviour as teenagers, were more likely to experience depression during pregnancy.

These findings do not mean a woman who suffers from depression while she is pregnant is doomed to have children who misbehave, bully others and get into fights. However, they do highlight an issue researchers say needs attention.

For the study, the researchers enrolled 120 inner-city youth, interviewing their mothers, while pregnant, after giving birth and when their children were 4, 11 and 16 years old.

They found the children of mothers depressed during pregnancy were four times more likely to be violent aged 16, with the mothers’ behavioural problems as teens predicting their depression while pregnant. While, 8.5% of teenagers born to happy mothers exhibited anti-social behaviour, it was 29% for those born to depressed mothers.

However, the same link was not found between depressed expectant and teenagers non-violent though deviant behaviours like shoplifting.

In a news release, Dale F. Hay, a Professor of Psychology at Cardiff University in Wales, said while it is not clear how depression during pregnancy sets infants on the path to increased anti-social behaviour, however, what the study’s findings suggest is that women with a history of behavioural problems, who become depressed during pregnancy could be in need of special support.

Further, Hay said that while much attention has been paid to the effects of postnatal depression on young infants, depression during pregnancy also affects the unborn child.

The study will be published in the January / February issue of the journal Child Development.