Mother/child bond in mothers of overweight and eutrophic children: depression and socioeconomic factors.

OBJECTIVE To verify the presence of depression, age, level of schooling, occupation, marital status, number of children and nutritional status (maternal and of the child) in mothers of overweight and eutrophic children and relate the data to mother/child bonding. METHODS A total of 120 mothers of children aged up to 10 years participated; 30 of them were overweight and 30 were eutrophic (low-income bracket); 30 were overweight and 30 eutrophic (high-income bracket). The control group was composed of eutrophic children paired according to sex, age, level of schooling, and social condition. Data collection was made through interviews. The assessment instruments were: Mother/Child Bonding Assessment Protocol and Beck Depression Inventory. The nutritional classification was defined by calculation of the body mass index, as per the curves of the World Health Organization. For statistics, McNemar, χ2, and Fisher's exact tests were used. A 5% level of rejection of the null hypothesis was set. RESULTS There was no significant result between mother/child bonding and the variables studied, or between the presence of depression and level of schooling, marital status, occupation, and maternal nutritional status. Nevertheless, mothers of eutrophic children (high-income bracket) showed less depression than mothers of eutrophic children (low-income bracket). Mothers with three or more children displayed more depression than mothers with less than three children. Mothers under 30 years of age showed more depression than mothers aged 30 years or older. CONCLUSION There was no significant result between mother/child bonding and the variables studied, but the bond was compromised in all mothers of the sample. There was a significant result regarding the presence of depression.