Maternal stress during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes of children during the first 2 years of life.
OBJECTIVE
A growing body of literature documents associations between maternal stress in pregnancy and child development, but findings across studies are often inconsistent. The aim of this study was to estimate the association between exposure to different kinds of prenatal stress and child psychomotor development.


METHODS
The study population consisted of 372 mother-child pairs from Polish Mother and Child Cohort. The analysis was restricted to the women who worked at least 1 month during pregnancy period. Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy was assessed based on: the Subjective Work Characteristics Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale and Social Readjustment Rating Scale. The level of satisfaction with family functioning and support was evaluated by APGAR Family Scale. Child psychomotor development was assessed at the 12th and 24th months of age by Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development.


RESULTS
Negative impact on child cognitive development at the age of two was observed for the Perceived Stress Scale (β = -0.8; P = 0.01) and the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (β = -0.4; P = 0.03) after adjusting for the variety of confounders. Occupational stress, as well as satisfaction with family functioning, was not significantly associated with child psychomotor development (P > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
The study supports the findings that prenatal exposure to maternal stress is significantly associated with decreased child cognitive functions. In order to further understand and quantify the effects of prenatal stress on child neurodevelopment further studies are needed. This will be important for developing interventions that provide more assistance to pregnant women, including emotional support or help to manage psychological stress.
Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland.
Kinga
K
Polanska
Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland.
Anna
A
Krol
Department of Health and Work Psychology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland.
Dorota
D
Merecz-Kot
Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland.
Joanna
J
Jurewicz
Department of Work Physiology and Ergonomics, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland.
Teresa
T
Makowiec-Dabrowska
Unit of Neurotoxicology and Neuroendocrinology, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
Flavia
F
Chiarotti
Unit of Neurotoxicology and Neuroendocrinology, Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
Gemma
G
Calamandrei
Department of Environmental Epidemiology, Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland.
Wojciech
W
Hanke
D000328:Adult; D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D065886:Neurodevelopmental Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*
child psychomotor development; family functioning; life events stress; life stress; occupational stress