ArticleJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry2017
Thinking Across Generations: Unique Contributions of Maternal Early Life and Prenatal Stress to Infant Physiology.
Article in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Parental Preconception Adversity and Offspring Health in African Americans: A Systematic Review of Intergenerational Studies.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2023Pooled it
- Total Adverse Childhood Experiences and Preterm Birth: A Systematic Review.Maternal and child health journal · 2021Pooled it
- Physiological measurement of emotion from infancy to preschool: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain and behavior · 2021Pooled it
- Parent-child relationship quality buffers the association between mothers' adverse childhood experiences and physiological synchrony.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Article
- Parent emotion regulation difficulties statistically mediate the association between parental adverse childhood experiences and child emotion regulation.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
- Independent and Combined Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Prenatal Stress on Fetal HPA Axis Development.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Effect of parental adverse childhood experiences on intergenerational DNA methylation signatures from peripheral blood mononuclear cells and buccal mucosa.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Cumulative adversity, mindfulness, and mental health in first-time mothers experiencing low income.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2023Article
- Associations among maternal lifetime trauma, psychological symptoms in pregnancy, and infant stress reactivity and regulation.Development and psychopathology · 2023Article
- Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences and Perceived Stress During Pregnancy: The Role of Personality.Journal of child & adolescent trauma · 2023Article
- Examining implications of the developmental timing of maternal trauma for prenatal and newborn outcomes.Infant behavior & development · 2023Article
- A Multi-Cohort Examination of the Independent Contributions of Maternal Childhood Adversity and Pregnancy Stressors to the Prediction of Children's Anxiety and Depression.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2023Article
- Unique Contributions of Maternal Prenatal and Postnatal Emotion Dysregulation on Infant Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2022Article
- Effects of ambient air pollution, fresh fruit and vegetable intakes as well as maternal psychosocial stress on the outcome of newborn otoacoustic emission hearing screening.BMC pediatrics · 2022Article
- Racial Differences in the Risk of Prenatal Depression Among Women Experiencing Childhood and Adult Stressors.Maternal and child health journal · 2022Article
- Attachment Security in Pregnancy Mediates the Association Between Maternal Childhood Maltreatment and Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Offspring.Child psychiatry and human development · 2021Article
- Charting a Course towards Resilience Following Adverse Childhood Experiences: Addressing Intergenerational Trauma via Strengths-Based Intervention.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Article
- Influences of adversity across the lifespan on respiratory sinus arrhythmia during pregnancy.Developmental psychobiology · 2021Article
- Parental history of childhood maltreatment and child average RSA shape parent-child RSA synchrony.Developmental psychobiology · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveRespiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a parasympathetic-mediated biomarker of self-regulation linked to lifespan mental and physical health outcomes. Intergenerational impacts of mothers' exposure to prenatal stress have been demonstrated, but evidence for biological embedding of maternal preconception stress, including adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), on infant RSA is lacking. We examine the independent effects of maternal ACEs and prenatal stress on infant RSA, seeking to broaden the understanding of the earliest origins of mental and physical health risk.
methodMothers reported on ACEs and prenatal stress. RSA was recorded in a sample of 167 4-month-old infants (49% female and 51% male) during a dyadic stressor, the Still Face Paradigm.
resultsIndependent contributions of maternal ACEs and prenatal stress to infant RSA were observed. High maternal ACEs were associated with lower RSA, whereas prenatal stress was associated with failure to recover following the stressor. Sex but not race differences were observed. Prenatal stress was associated with higher RSA among boys but lower RSA among girls.
conclusionInfants' RSA is affected by mothers' life course experiences of stress, with ACEs predicting a lower set point and prenatal stress dampening recovery from stress. For prenatal stress but not ACEs, patterns vary across sex. Findings underscore that stress-reducing interventions for pregnant women or those considering pregnancy may lead to decreased physical and mental health risk across generations.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.