Browsing by Author "Halme, Anni"

Objectives. In previous research, prenatal stress has been associated not only with preterm birth and low birth weight but also with child temperamental characteristics and emotional development. There has been some variation in study methods and results across studies, study samples have been rather small, and the relationship between prenatal stress and child temperament is still not fully understood. Timing of prenatal stress has also been emphasized, but there have been only few studies of its effects on child temperament. This longitudinal study aimed to determine whether maternal prenatal stress is associated with mother- and father-rated temperament of 6-month-old infants. The study also assessed whether timing of prenatal stress or concurrent parental stress influence the associations. Methods. This study is a part of a broader, multidisciplinary Prediction and Prevention of Pre-eclampsia (PREDO) -project. The current study sample consisted of 2197 children and their parents, who were recruited from maternity clinics at weeks 12 + 0 to 13 + 6 of gestation. Mothers filled a stress-self-report questionnaire (the Perceived Stress Scale) biweekly throughout pregnancy, a total of 14 times. Mothers (n = 2197) and their spouses (n = 1235) rated temperamental characteristics of their about 6-month-old child with the Revised Infant Behaviour Questionnaire. The associations between prenatal stress and infant temperament were analyzed using linear regression, controlling for multiple perinatal and sociodemographic confounders and for concurrent levels of maternal and paternal stress. The mediation effect of maternal concurrent stress was analyzed using the Sobel test and the moderation effect using the one-way ANOVA. Results and conclusions. Higher maternal prenatal stress predicted both mother- and father-rated higher negative affectivity and lower orientating regulation, but not extraversion in 6-month-old infants. Mid- to late pregnancy stress had the strongest associations to these traits. Maternal postnatal stress moderated and partly mediated the association to negative affectivity and mediated the association to orientating regulation. Prenatal stress was significantly associated with negative affectivity only in the group of mothers who experienced lower prenatal stress. Nevertheless, even after controlling for concurrent maternal/paternal stress, the association between prenatal stress and both mother- and father-rated negative affectivity remained significant, but the association to orientating regulation remained significant only as father-rated. The results are in line with the fetal programming hypothesis and add to the growing body of literature about the importance of prenatal environmental factors in infant temperament development.