title: High levels of antenatal maternal anxiety are associated with altered cognitive control in five-year-old children.
abstract: This longitudinal prospective study examined the relation between maternal anxiety during pregnancy and specific aspects of children's cognitive functioning at age five. Antenatal maternal state-anxiety was measured around the 16th week of pregnancy. Children's neurocognitive functioning was examined using a simple reaction time (RT) task, and a choice RT task. Multiple regression analyses in the total sample (N = 922) showed that antenatal anxiety was positively related to children's intra-individual variability in RT in the simple task. In a subsample (n = 100) of women with state-anxiety scores above the 90th percentile, antenatal anxiety was positively associated with mean RT and intra-individual variability in RT in the incompatible trials of the choice RT task. In addition, in this subsample of highly anxious mothers we found a significant positive association in boys but not in girls, between prenatal maternal anxiety and intra-individual variability in RT in the simple task.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands. e.m.loomans@uvt.nl
authors.forename: Eva Margarita
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Loomans
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: van der Stelt
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Eijsden
authors.forename: R J B J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Gemke
authors.forename: T G M
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Vrijkotte
authors.forename: B R H
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Van den Bergh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires