Children's stress regulation mediates the association between prenatal maternal mood and child executive functions for boys, but not girls

@article{Neuenschwander2018ChildrensSR,
  title={Children's stress regulation mediates the association between prenatal maternal mood and child executive functions for boys, but not girls},
  author={Regula Neuenschwander and Kaia Vivian Hookenson and Ursula Brain and Ruth Eckstein Grunau and Angela M. Devlin and Joanne Weinberg and Adele Diamond and Tim F. Oberlander},
  journal={Development and Psychopathology},
  year={2018},
  volume={30},
  pages={953 - 969}
}
Abstract Prenatal exposure to maternal mood disturbances shapes children's cognitive development reflected in the critical construct of executive functions (EFs). Little is known, however, about underlying mechanisms. By examining cortisol responses in both everyday and lab challenge settings, we tested whether the child/offspring hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis mediates effects of prenatal maternal mood on child EFs at age 6. In 107 Canadian children born to women with a wide range of… 
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17 Citations
Background Citations
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Results Citations
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17 Citations

Emotional Stress During Pregnancy – Associations With Maternal Anxiety Disorders, Infant Cortisol Reactivity, and Mother–Child Interaction at Pre-school Age

Even though maternal stress during pregnancy did not directly predict mother–child interaction quality at pre-school age, it was significantly correlated with infant cortisol reactivity during postpartum period, and caution should be taken when interpreting the results considering the small sample size.

Neuroendocrine and autonomic stress systems activity in young adults raised by mothers with mental health and substance abuse problems: A prospective cohort study.

Examination of the activity of offspring's neuroendocrine and autonomic systems when exposed to a mild psychological stressor provides evidence that negative parenting may have long-lasting effects on stress-sensitive physiological mechanisms.

A Developmental Cascade from Prenatal Stress to Child Internalizing and Externalizing Problems.

Results provide support for the fetal programming, interpersonal stress transmission, and continuation of stress models and highlight the need for prenatal preventative programs that continue into the early postnatal period, targeting maternal stress and parenting behaviors.

Prenatal mother-father cortisol linkage predicts infant executive functions at 24 months.

Ass associations between prenatal mother-father cortisol linkage and infant executive functions suggest that prenatal linkage of mother's and father's stress physiology plays a potentially important part in programming and regulating infant neurocognitive development.

Intergenerational Transmission of Effects of Women's Stressors During Pregnancy: Child Psychopathology and the Protective Role of Parenting

Objective Experiences of stress and adversity, such as intimate partner violence, confer risk for psychiatric problems across the life span. The effects of these risks are disproportionately borne by…

Parenting as a Mediator of Associations between Depression in Mothers and Children’s Functioning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Empirical support for parenting (both positive and negative) as a mediator of associations between mothers' depression and a broad range of child functioning is provided and interventions should target samples that represent the population in terms of poverty and ethnicity and children's gender.

PRENATAL STRESS AND CHILD NEURO-DEVELOPMENT

To review the literature of relationship between prenatal stress and child development, a review of the 12 identified papers that explained prenatal stress is performed to address the following questions.

Maternal perinatal depression and child executive function: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Sex-dependence and comorbidities of the early-life adversity induced mental and metabolic disease risks: Where are we at?

Neuroendocrine and immune pathways from pre- and perinatal stress to substance abuse

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