title: Prenatal anxiety, maternal stroking in infancy, and symptoms of emotional and behavioral disorders at 3.5 years.
abstract: Animal findings of long-term effects of maternal behaviors mediated via altered GR gene expression will, if translated into humans, have far reaching implications for our understanding of child and adolescent psychopathology. We have previously shown that mothers' self-reported stroking of their infants modifies associations between prenatal depression and anxiety and child outcomes at 29 weeks and 2.5 years. Here, we examine whether the effect of early maternal stroking is evident at 3.5 years, and in a much larger sample than in previous publications. A general population sample of 1233 first-time mothers completed anxiety measures at 20 weeks gestation, 865 reported on infant stroking at 9 weeks, and 813 on child symptoms at 3.5 years. Maternal stroking moderated the association between pregnancy-specific anxiety and internalizing (p = 0.010) and externalizing (p = 0.004) scores, such that an effect of PSA to increase symptoms was markedly reduced for mothers who reported high levels of stroking. There was no effect of maternal stroking on general anxiety. The findings confirm the previously reported effect of maternal stroking, and in a much larger sample. They indicate that there are long-term effects of early maternal stroking, modifying associations between prenatal anxiety and child emotional and behavioral symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College, London, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pickles
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sharp
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College, London, UK.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hellier
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK. j.hill@reading.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2801-0449
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications; D011295:Prenatal Care; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D000066553:Problem Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D057566:Self Report; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Behavioral disorders; Emotional; Epigenetics; Fetal programing; Prenatal anxiety; Tactile stimulation