ArticleDevelopmental psychobiology2022
Prenatal exposure to maternal psychological distress and telomere length in childhood.
Article in Developmental psychobiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 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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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of Maternal Lifetime Stress on Offspring Biological Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- Measurement of pregnancy-related anxiety worldwide: a systematic review.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Pooled it
- Maternal health behavior during pregnancy mediates the relationship between maternal stress and newborn telomere length.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Maternal experience of intimate partner violence, maternal depression, and parental stress are not associated with child telomere length in Bangladesh.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Infant buccal telomere length: associations with maternal distress in pregnancy and offspring temperament.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Parental Preconception Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Maternal Prenatal Inflammation Prospectively Predict Shorter Telomere Length in Children.Psychosomatic medicine · 2024Article
- Mothers' prenatal distress accelerates adrenal pubertal development in daughters.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Exploring the associations between serious psychological distress and the quantity or frequency of tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use among pregnant women in the United States.Preventive medicine · 2023Article
- Sub-optimal maternal gestational gain is associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length at birth in a predominantly Latinx cohort of newborns.Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology · 2023Article
- Maternal stress-induced changes in adolescent and adult offspring: Neurobehavioural improvement and telomere maintenance.Heliyon · 2023Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Telomere length (TL) is a biological marker of cellular aging, and shorter TL in adulthood is associated with increased morbidity and mortality risk. It is likely that these differences in TL are established long before adulthood, and there is growing evidence that TL can reflect prenatal experiences. Although maternal prenatal distress predicts newborn TL, it is unknown whether the relation between prenatal exposure to maternal distress and child TL persists through childhood. The purpose of the current longitudinal, prospective study is to examine the relation between prenatal exposure to maternal distress (perceived stress, depressive symptoms, pregnancy-related anxiety) and TL in childhood. Participants included 102 children (54 girls) and their mothers. Mothers' distress was assessed five times during pregnancy, at 12 weeks postpartum, and at the time of child telomere measurement between 6 and 16 years of age. Maternal distress during pregnancy predicted shorter offspring TL in childhood, even after accounting for postnatal exposure to maternal distress and other covariates. These findings indicate that maternal mental health predicts offspring TL biology later in childhood than previously observed. This study bolsters claims that telomere biology is subject to fetal programming and highlights the importance of supporting maternal mental health during pregnancy.
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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.