A new study has revealed that teens whose mothers suffered from depression during pregnancy face an increased risk of displaying antisocial behavior, including violence.

The team of British researchers also discovered that women who are prone to displaying unusually aggressive and disruptive behavior during their teen years, are more at risk of being depressed when they are pregnant. This reflects that a mother's history of behavior might predict her children's antisocial behavior.

For the sake of study, researchers analyzed 120 inner-city youths and their mothers, and the mothers of these children where interviewed once when they were pregnant, after they gave birth and when their children had hit the ages of 4, 11 and 16.

"Although it's not yet clear exactly how depression in pregnancy might set infants on a pathway toward increased antisocial behavior, our findings suggest that women with a history of conduct problems who become depressed in pregnancy may be in special need of support", Dale F. Hay, a professor of psychology at Cardiff University in Wales, said.

Details of the study have been published in the January/February issue of the journal Child Development.