title: Maternal prenatal psychological distress and temperament in 1-4 month old infants - A study in a non-western population.
abstract: In this longitudinal study, conducted in women attending antenatal visits at the obstetrics and gynecology clinic of a general hospital in Bangalore, India, we aimed to assess the relationship between prenatal distress in mothers, and maternal report of infant temperament at four months. 100 mothers with normal full term deliveries completed the General Health Questionnaire-28 item version (GHQ) in the third trimester and postnatally. Salivary cortisol and temperament (using the Early Infancy Temperament Questionnaire - EITQ) were assessed in their infants aged 1-4 months. In this study, maternal prenatal psychological distress was not significantly associated with maternal report of difficult temperament in infants. Infants of mothers who were a negative screen for psychological distress (GHQ<7), n=85 had higher scores on the adaptability and approach dimensions of temperament. Infant salivary cortisol was significantly higher in infants with higher intensity scores. These results introduce the possibility of cultural differences in the relationship between prenatal distress in the mother and infant temperament. These could be factors linked to child rearing practices or to the measures employed to study infant temperament. These findings derive from a small sample with few mothers with psychological distress, and need replication in a larger sample.
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States. Electronic address: amritha@uw.edu.
authors.forename: Amritha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bhat
authors.affiliation: St. John's Research Institute, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Roopashree
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chowdayya
authors.affiliation: St. John's Research Institute, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Sumithra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Selvam
authors.affiliation: Northwest Clinical Research Center, Bellevue, WA, United States; Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, United States.
authors.forename: Arif
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA, United States.
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kolts
authors.affiliation: St. John's Research Institute, Bangalore, India; St. John's Medical College Hospital, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Krishnamachari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism; D007194:India; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D033261:Maternal-Fetal Relations; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013694:Temperament; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Pregnancy; Temperament