ArticleClinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science2019
Prenatal Risk for ASD: Fetal Cortisol Exposure Predicts Child Autism-Spectrum Disorder Symptoms.
Article in Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
The trial behind it
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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Alteration of peripheral cortisol and autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Neonatal amygdala microstructure and structural connectivity are associated with autistic traits at 2 years of age.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Associations among maternal prenatal depression, maternal autism traits, and child autism traits in the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcome (ECHO) program.Journal of neurodevelopmental disorders · 2026Article
- Biopsychosocial factors during pregnancy and their implications for autism spectrum disorder: a scoping review.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Fetal Cortisol Exposure and Offspring Socioemotional Development.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- DNA Methylation Mediates the Association Between Prenatal Maternal Stress and the Broad Autism Phenotype in Human Adolescents: Project Ice Storm.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- The Long and Winding Road to Understanding Autism.NeuroSci · 2025Review
- Higher prenatal anxiety predicts lower neonatal hair cortisol.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- A framework for testing pathways from prenatal stress-responsive hormones to cardiovascular disease risk.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2023Review
- Maternal prenatal cortisol trajectories predict accelerated growth in infancy.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- Maternal Cardiovascular Health in Early Pregnancy and Childhood Brain Structure.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2022Article
- The influence of maternal anxiety and cortisol during pregnancy on childhood anxiety symptoms.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2022Article
- Characterizing prenatal maternal distress with unique prenatal cortisol trajectories.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is multifactorial and complex and likely involves interactions among genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors. With respect to environmental influences, a growing literature implicates intrauterine experiences in the origin of this pervasive developmental disorder. In this prospective longitudinal design, we examine the hypothesis that fetal exposure to maternal cortisol may confer ASD risk. In addition, because ASD is four times more prevalent in males than females and because sexually dimorphic responses to intrauterine experiences are commonly observed, we examine whether or not any associations differ by fetal sex. Maternal plasma cortisol was measured at 15, 19, 25, 31, and 37 weeks' gestation in a sample of 84 pregnant women. ASD symptoms were assessed in their 5-year old children with the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). Fetal exposure to lower levels of maternal cortisol was associated with higher levels of ASD symptoms among boys only. The observed hypocortisolemic profile exhibited by these mothers may indicate a risk factor that precedes the stress of caregiving for a child with ASD and may not be solely a consequence of the stress of caregiving as previously thought. Further, these findings confirm the value of examining prenatal hormone exposures as predictors of ASD risk and support the premise that altered prenatal steroid exposures may play a role in the etiology of ASD.
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Registered trials
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.