title: Psychological measures of prenatal stress as predictors of infant temperament.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine, in a prospective study, whether maternal stress during pregnancy is related to infant temperament.
  
  
  METHODS
  Self-report data on various aspects of prenatal stress were collected from nulliparous women in early pregnancy. Infant temperament was measured at 3 and 8 months by direct observation and by parent report.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Complete data were available for 170 term-born infants. Pregnancy-specific anxiety explained 3.3% of the variance of attention regulation at 3 months. Perceived stress and pregnancy anxiety taken together explained 5% of the variance of attention regulation at 8 months. Perceived stress accounted for 8.2% of the variance of difficult behavior of the 3-month-old infant. All results were adjusted for covariates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increased maternal prenatal stress seems to be associated with temperamental variation of young infants and may be a risk factor for psychopathology later in life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Utrecht University Medical Centre, Rudolf Magnus Institute for Neuroscience, The Netherlands. AC.Huizink.Emgo@med.vu.nl
authors.forename: Anja C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Huizink
authors.forename: Pascale G Robles
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: de Medina
authors.forename: Eduard J H
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Mulder
authors.forename: Gerard H A
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Visser
authors.forename: Jan K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Buitelaar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009426:Netherlands; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013694:Temperament