ArticlePsychological medicine2023
The trajectory of maternal perinatal depressive symptoms predicts executive function in early childhood.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Computer-Assisted Performance-Based Assessment for Mental Health: A Scoping Review.PsyCh journal · 2026Article
- Examining pathways between trajectories of maternal depressive symptoms, harsh parenting, and adolescent executive functions: insights from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Prenatal antidepressant exposure is associated withFrontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Trajectories of Perinatal Depressive Symptoms from the Second Trimester to Three Months Postpartum and Their Dynamic Relationship with Social Support: A Prospective Cohort Study in Beijing, China.International journal of women's health · 2026Article
- The role of perinatal perceived stress in the setting of adverse childhood experience and perinatal anxiety and depressive symptoms.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Risk for Childhood Depression: Role of Executive Functions.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2025Observational
- Interpretable Machine Learning Model for Predicting Postpartum Depression: Retrospective Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2025Article
- How parental depression influences the development of adolescent depression: based on data from China family panel studies.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPerinatal maternal depression may affect fetal neurodevelopment directly or indirectly via exposures such as smoking, alcohol, or antidepressant use. The relative contribution of these risk factors on child executive function (EF) has not been explored systematically.
methodsA prospective pregnancy cohort of 197 women and their children was studied to determine whether maternal depression diagnosis and the trajectory of maternal depressive symptoms (MDSs) from early pregnancy to 12 months postpartum predicts child EF at age 4 (measured using the preschool age psychiatric assessment, NEPSY-II, and Shape School task) using latent growth curve modeling. Indirect effects of smoking, alcohol, and antidepressant use were also formally tested.
resultsIncreasing maternal perinatal depressive symptoms over time predicted more inattentive symptoms, poorer switching, and motor inhibition, but not cognitive inhibition. When adjusted for multiple comparison, and after accounting for maternal cognition and education, the association with child inattentive symptoms remained significant. However, diagnosed depression did not predict child EF outcomes. Prenatal exposure to smoking, alcohol, and antidepressants also did not mediate pathways from depressive symptoms to EF outcomes. Our findings were limited by sample size and statistical power to detect outcome effects of smaller effect size.
conclusionsThis study suggests that increasing MDSs over the perinatal period is associated with poorer EF outcomes in children at age 4 - independent of prenatal smoking, drinking, or antidepressant use. Depressive chronicity, severity, and postpartum influences may play crucial roles in determining childhood outcomes of EF.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.