ArticlePhysiology & behavior2017
Maternal prenatal cortisol predicts infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner.
Article in Physiology & behavior, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Investigating the Relationship between Exposures to Chemical and Non-Chemical Stressors during Prenatal Development and Childhood Externalizing Behaviors.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- Perceived connectedness during the perinatal period: Implications for parent and child well-being.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2026Review
- Low Pregnancy Cortisol and Infant Socioemotional Problems: The Mediating Role of Postpartum Depressive Symptoms.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Timing of Prenatal Stress Exposure Predicts Infant Sympathetic Nervous System and Affective Responses.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Fetal Cortisol Exposure and Offspring Socioemotional Development.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Exploring the association between gestational diabetes exposure and mental and behavioural disorders in offspring: the Finnish gestational diabetes (FinnGeDi) register-based study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Article
- Persistent maternal age effects on male offspring fitness traits in a wild mammal population.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Cortisol as a Mediator of Prenatal Distress and Difficult Infant Temperament: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocol.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Mapping Dysregulation: Prenatal Predictors and Developmental Trajectories of Multiple Regulatory Problems in Early Childhood.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2025Article
- Pinpointing the timing of prenatal stress associated with infant biobehavioral reactivity.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Managing Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease during pregnancy with steroid pulse therapy: A case report.World journal of clinical cases · 2024Article
- Sex-specific associations between placental corticotropin releasing hormone and problem behaviors in childhood.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Associations among Maternal Trauma History, Postnatal Maternal Sensitivity, and Infant Temperament.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Emotionally Sensitive Child-Adverse Parenting Experiences-Allostatic (Over)Load (ESCAPE-AL) Model for the Development of Secondary Psychopathic Traits.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2023Article
- Morphological abnormalities in youth with bipolar disorder and their relationship to clinical characteristics.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
- Maternal Perinatal Stress Trajectories and Negative Affect and Amygdala Development in Offspring.The American journal of psychiatry · 2023Article
- Prenatal stress and child externalizing behavior: effects of maternal perceived stress and cortisol are moderated by child sex.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2023Article
- Prenatal exposure to a natural disaster and early development of psychiatric disorders during the preschool years: stress in pregnancy study.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2023Article
- Intergenerational risk and resilience pathways from discrimination and acculturative stress to infant mental health.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- Paternal perinatal stress is associated with children's emotional problems at 2 years.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePrenatal stress influences fetal developmental trajectories, which may implicate glucocorticoid mechanisms. There is also emerging evidence that effects of prenatal stress on offspring development are sex-dependent. However, little is known about the prospective relationship between maternal prenatal cortisol levels and infant behaviour, and whether it may be different in male and female infants. We sought to address this question using data from a prospective longitudinal cohort, stratified by risk.
methodThe Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS) cohort (n=1233) included a stratified random sub-sample (n=216) who provided maternal saliva samples, assayed for cortisol, at home over two days at 32weeks of pregnancy (on waking, 30-min post-waking and during the evening) and a measure of infant negative emotionality from the Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale (NBAS) at five weeks-of-age. General population estimates of associations among measures were obtained using inverse probability weights.
resultsMaternal prenatal cortisol sampled on waking predicted infant negative emotionality in a sex-dependent manner (interaction term, p=0.005); female infants exposed to high levels of prenatal cortisol were more negative (Beta=0.440, p=0.042), whereas male infants were less negative (Beta=-0.407, p=0.045). There was no effect of the 30-min post-waking measure or evening cortisol. DISCUSSION: Our findings add to an emerging body of work that has highlighted sex differences in fetal programming, whereby females become more reactive following prenatal stress, and males less reactive. A more complete understanding of sex-specific developmental trajectories in the context of prenatal stress is essential for the development of targeted prevention strategies.
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