Maternal life events during pregnancy and offspring language ability in middle childhood: The Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study.
BACKGROUND
There is accumulating evidence for a link between maternal stress during pregnancy and later behavioural and emotional problems in children. Little research has examined other developmental outcomes.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of maternal stress during pregnancy on offspring language ability in middle childhood.


METHODS
Longitudinal pregnancy cohort-study.


METHODS
A total of 2900 mothers were recruited prior to the 18th week of pregnancy, delivering 2868 live births. The language ability of just under half of the offspring cohort (n=1309; 45.6% of original sample) was assessed in middle childhood (Mean age=10;7, Standard deviation=0;2, range: 9;5-11;11).


METHODS
Language ability was measured using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R). The main predictor variable was the frequency of 10 typically 'stressful' life events experienced by mothers during early and/or late pregnancy. Children were allocated to four groups according to whether they were exposed to high maternal stress (>or=2 life events) during early pregnancy only, late pregnancy only, both, or neither.


RESULTS
Mixed-effects regression analyses revealed no association between the maternal experience of two or more stressful life events at any time-point during pregnancy and PPVT-R scores. Repeating the regression analyses with more lenient (>or=1 life events) or strict (>or=3 life events) thresholds for defining high-levels of maternal stress did not alter the pattern of findings.


CONCLUSIONS
Maternal experience of typically stressful life events during pregnancy has a negligible effect on vocabulary development to middle childhood.
Whitehouse
Andrew J O
AJ
Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Centre for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Robinson
Monique
M
Zubrick
Stephen R
SR
Ang
Q W
QW
Stanley
Fiona J
FJ
Pennell
Craig E
CE
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008016:Life Change Events; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires