title: Maternal Prenatal Stress and Other Developmental Risk Factors for Adolescent Depression: Spotlight on Sex Differences.
abstract: Maternal stress during pregnancy has been linked to premorbid abnormalities associated with depression (e.g., difficult temperament, cognitive deficits) in offspring. However, few studies have looked across developmental periods to examine maternal stress during pregnancy and offspring depression during adolescence and whether these associations differ by sex. The current study used data from 1711 mother-offspring dyads (offspring sex: 49.8% male) in a longitudinal birth cohort study. Maternal narratives collected during pregnancy were qualitatively coded for stress-related themes by independent raters. Latent class analysis (LCA) identified distinct subgroups of offspring based on exposure to maternal prenatal stress and other developmental factors from the prenatal, childhood, and adolescent periods that have been associated with depression and/or maternal prenatal stress. LCA identified subgroups that were compared to determine whether and to what extent they differed on adolescent depressive symptoms. LCA revealed a subgroup of "high-risk" individuals, characterized by maternal factors during pregnancy (higher ambivalence/negativity and lower positivity towards the pregnancy, higher levels of hassles, lower maternal education and higher maternal age at birth, higher pre-pregnancy BMI) and offspring developmental factors (decreased cognitive functioning during childhood and adolescence, lower perceived parental support during adolescence, and higher levels of maternal depression during adolescence). High-risk females exhibited elevated conduct symptoms and higher birth order, while high-risk males exhibited decreased internalizing symptoms and lower birth order. Both high-risk males and females reported elevated depressive symptoms during adolescence relative to their "low-risk" counterparts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA.
authors.forename: Seth D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA.
authors.forename: Anna M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Fineberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA.
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Drabick
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA.
authors.forename: Shannon K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA. ellman@temple.edu.
authors.forename: Lauren M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Ellman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001722:Birth Order; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adolescence; Depression; Developmental risk factors; Prenatal stress; Sex differences