Bachpan Study: Maternal Depression and Child Development in Rural Pakistan, 3-Year Cohort

Rural Pakistan pregnancy cohort of 1,154 mothers with an embedded cluster-randomized control trial of the Thinking Healthy Program- Peer Delivered Plus (THPP+) intervention for maternal depression. Participants were recruited during their third trimester and followed with assessments through the child's age of 36 months. The dataset includes longitudinal measures of maternal health, child health, and family environment characteristics.

Use Cases

• Evaluate the sustained effects of the THPP+ intervention on maternal depression based on PHQ-9 scores over 36 months.
• Model child development outcomes based on longitudinal measures of maternal health and family environment.
• Analyze the impact of social and environmental factors, such as socioeconomic status and social support, on maternal and child health.
• Conduct observational studies on the relationship between interpersonal violence, parenting, and child well-being.

Strengths

• Longitudinal design with assessments at 6 time points from pregnancy to child age 36 months.
• Includes 1,154 participants with defined subgroups: 283 in THPP+, 287 in enhanced usual care, and 584 non-depressed controls.
• Embedded randomized control trial provides a basis for causal inference on the intervention's effects.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is specific to rural Pakistan, which may limit generalizability to other populations.

Provenance

Source

Harvard Dataverse, author John Gallis.

Collection Method

Pregnancy cohort study with an embedded cluster-randomized control trial.

Time Range

From third trimester of pregnancy through child age 36 months.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-17 12:35:52; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Rural Pakistan.