ArticleJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry2022
Associations of Maternal Prenatal Stress and Depressive Symptoms With Childhood Neurobehavioral Outcomes in the ECHO Cohort of the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies: Fetal Growth Velocity as a Potential Mediator.
Article in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- The placental tryptophan pathway across gestation: implications for pregnancy outcomes.Human reproduction update · 2026Review
- Abnormal intestinal microbial colonization in prenatally stressed offspring is related to lung and intestinal cytokine expression.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Article
- Report: Workshop on maternal mental health, February 11-12, 2024, cosponsored by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Heart Rate Variability Patterns Reflect Yoga Intervention in Chronically Stressed Pregnant Women: A Quasi-Randomized Controlled Trial.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Mid-pregnancy uterine artery Dopplers and child neurodevelopment.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Associations of prenatal stress with 5-year-old children's executive function in a low socioeconomic status population.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Association between maternal stress and child sleep quality: a nationwide ECHO prospective cohort study.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Prenatal maternal stress: triangulating evidence for intrauterine exposure effects on birth and early childhood outcomes across multiple approaches.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Biological and behavioral pathways from prenatal depression to offspring cardiometabolic risk: Testing the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis.Developmental psychology · 2024Review
- The science of uncertainty guides fetal-neonatal neurology principles and practice: diagnostic-prognostic opportunities and challenges.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Review
- Article
- Association of Primary Immunodeficiencies in Parents With Psychiatric Disorders and Suicidal Behavior in Their Offspring.JAMA psychiatry · 2023Article
- Maternal lifetime stress and psychological functioning in pregnancy is associated with preschoolers' temperament: Exploring effect modification by race and ethnicity.Neurotoxicology and teratologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
22 authors at 12 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveMaternal prenatal stress and mood symptoms are associated with risk for child psychopathology. Within the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Fetal Growth Studies (ECHO-FGS), a racially and ethnically diverse cohort, we studied associations between prenatal stress and depressive symptoms with child neurobehavior, and potential mediation by fetal growth velocity (FGV) in low-risk pregnancies.
methodFor 730 mother-child pairs, we had serial ultrasound measurements, self-reports of prenatal stress and depression, observations of child executive functions and motor skills from 4 to 8 years, and maternal reports of child psychiatric problems. We tested associations between prenatal stress and depressive symptoms with child neurobehavior in regression analyses, and associations with FGV in mixed effect models. Post hoc we tested severity of prenatal symptoms; FGV at 25
resultsPrenatal stress and depressive symptoms were associated with child psychiatric problems, and prenatal depressive symptoms with decrements in executive functions and motor skills, especially in biological male children. Neither prenatal stress nor depressive symptoms were associated with FGV.
conclusionIn one of the largest cohorts with observed child outcomes, and the first with broad representation of race and ethnicity in the United States, we found that prenatal stress and depressive symptoms were associated with greater reports of child psychiatric symptoms. Only prenatal depressive symptoms were associated with observed decrements in cognitive abilities, most significantly in biological male children. Stress during low-risk pregnancies may be less detrimental than theorized. There was no mediation by FGV. These findings support the need to attend to even small changes in prenatal distress, as these may have long-lasting implications.
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