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Children's stress regulation mediates the association between prenatal maternal mood and child executive functions for boys, but not girls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2018

Regula Neuenschwander ,
Kaia Hookenson ,
Ursula Brain ,
Ruth E. Grunau ,
Angela M. Devlin ,
Joanne Weinberg ,
Adele Diamond  and
Tim F. Oberlander
Regula Neuenschwander*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute
Kaia Hookenson
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute
Ursula Brain
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute
Ruth E. Grunau
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute
Angela M. Devlin
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute
Joanne Weinberg
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute
Adele Diamond
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute
Tim F. Oberlander
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Regula Neuenschwander, Fabrikstrasse 8 (Büro A 349), CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland; E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Prenatal exposure to maternal mood disturbances shapes children's cognitive development reflected in the critical construct of executive functions (EFs). Little is known, however, about underlying mechanisms. By examining cortisol responses in both everyday and lab challenge settings, we tested whether the child/offspring hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis mediates effects of prenatal maternal mood on child EFs at age 6. In 107 Canadian children born to women with a wide range of anxious and depressive symptoms during pregnancy, we found that in boys but not girls, depressed and/or anxious prenatal maternal mood is associated with heightened diurnal cortisol levels in everyday settings, as well as heightened cortisol reactivity to a lab challenge and that this heightened reactivity was associated with poorer EFs. Among boys we also observed that cortisol reactivity but not diurnal cortisol mediated the association between depressed and/or anxious prenatal maternal mood and EFs. Depressed and/or anxious prenatal maternal mood was related to child EFs for both girls and boys. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a mediating role for child stress regulation in the association between prenatal maternal stress-related mood disturbances and child EFs, providing evidence of a mechanism contributing to fetal programming of cognition.

Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 30 , Special Issue 3: Developmental Origins of Psychopathology: Mechanisms, Processes, and Pathways Linking the Prenatal Environment to Postnatal Outcomes , August 2018 , pp. 953 - 969
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

Support for this research was provided by a CIHR Grant MOP-89916 (to T.F.O.) and a postdoctoral fellowship from Brain Canada/NeuroDevNet (to R.N.). A. M. D. is supported by an Investigation Grant from BC Children's Hospital research Institute, University of British Columbia. We would like to thank our research assistants for data collection and all children and mothers for their participation.

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