ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2021
Maternal prenatal stress and postnatal depressive symptoms: discrepancy between mother and teacher reports of toddler psychological problems.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prenatal psychological distress and neurodevelopmental trajectories in the first 3 years: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Kids These Days! A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of Changes in Emotional and Behavioral Problems of Population-Based Samples Over the Past Decades.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2026Review
- Prenatal maternal stress: triangulating evidence for intrauterine exposure effects on birth and early childhood outcomes across multiple approaches.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Multiple Risk in Pregnancy- Prenatal Risk Constellations and Mother-Infant Interactions, Parenting Stress, and Child Externalizing and Internalizing Behaviors: A Prospective Longitudinal Cohort Study from Pregnancy to 18 Months Postpartum.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
- Intergenerational transmission of stress: Multi-domain stressors from maternal childhood and pregnancy predict children's mental health in a racially and socioeconomically diverse, multi-site cohort.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2023Article
- Maternal depressive symptoms, neonatal white matter, and toddler social-emotional development.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
- Associations of Pre- and Postnatal Air Pollution Exposures with Child Behavioral Problems and Cognitive Performance: A U.S. Multi-Cohort Study.Environmental health perspectives · 2022Article
- Treatment of women with postpartum mental disorders in a day clinic mother-baby unit and the effect on child behavioural problems - A 1-year follow-up.International journal of clinical and health psychology : IJCHPArticle
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeMaternal prenatal stress and postnatal depression are reported to increase the risk for early offspring psychological problems. We examined whether these two stressors predicted toddler emotional or behavioral problems based on the mother and teacher reports, respectively.
methodsA longitudinal study within the Odense Child Cohort (OCC). Prenatal stress was assessed (gestation week 28) using Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Depressive symptoms were assessed (3 months after birth) using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Behavioral and emotional problems were assessed by mothers using the preschool version of Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and by teachers using the caregiver-teacher report form (CTR-F).
resultsN = 1302 mother-child dyads were included. CBCL (N = 1302) was collected at 29 months (SD 5.3) and C-TRF (N = 989) at 32.6 months (SD 6.9). N = 70 mothers (5.4%) were at high risk for postnatal depression (EPDS score > 12). Generalized additive models showed that prenatal stress (increase of + 1 on PSS-10 total score) predicted an increase in CBCL (+ 0.011) and C-TRF (+ 0.015) total scores. Postnatal depressive symptoms (increase of + 1 on EPDS total score) only predicted an increase in CBCL total score (+ 0.026).
conclusionPrenatal maternal stress was a significant predictor of both mother and teacher reported toddler emotional and behavioral problems, although effect sizes were small. Postnatal depressive symptoms were associated with increased maternal (but not teacher) reporting of toddler problems. Mothers reported more toddler psychological problems than teachers, and the mother-teacher discrepancy was positively correlated to maternal postnatal depressive symptoms.
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