Research Article

Prenatal maternal emotional complaints are associated with cortisol responses in toddler and preschool aged girls

  1. Anouk T.C.E. de Bruijn1,*,
  2. Hedwig J.A. van Bakel1,
  3. Hennie Wijnen2,
  4. Victor J.M. Pop3,
  5. Anneloes L. van Baar4

Article first published online: 17 AUG 2009

DOI: 10.1002/dev.20393

Issue

Developmental Psychobiology

Developmental Psychobiology

Volume 51, Issue 7, pages 553–563, November 2009

Additional Information

How to Cite

de Bruijn, A. T.C.E., van Bakel, H. J.A., Wijnen, H., Pop, V. J.M. and van Baar, A. L. (2009), Prenatal maternal emotional complaints are associated with cortisol responses in toddler and preschool aged girls. Dev. Psychobiol., 51: 553–563. doi: 10.1002/dev.20393

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Developmental, Clinical and Cross-Cultural Psychology, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, the Netherlands

  2. 2

    Department of Midwifery Sciences AVM, University of Midwifery Education & Studies, Maastricht, the Netherlands

  3. 3

    Department of Medical Health Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands

  4. 4

    Department of Pedagogical and Educational Sciences Utrecht University, Utrecht the Netherlands

*Department of Developmental, Clinical and Cross-Cultural Psychology, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 9 OCT 2009
  2. Article first published online: 17 AUG 2009
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 6 JUL 2009
  4. Manuscript Received: 13 JAN 2009

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Keywords:

  • prenatal stress;
  • HPA-axis;
  • cortisol;
  • gender;
  • DOHaD

Abstract

Associations between prenatal maternal emotional complaints and child behavioral and cognitive problems have been reported, with different relations for boys and girls. Fetal programming hypotheses underline these associations and state that the early development of the HPA-axis of the children may have been affected. In the present study, differences in cortisol responses of prenatally exposed and nonexposed children are examined for both sexes separately. Cortisol response patterns of a group preschool aged children that were prenatally exposed to high levels of maternal emotional complaints (N = 51) were compared to a nonexposed group (N = 52). Child saliva was collected at the start of a home visit (T1), 22 min after a mother–child interaction episode (T2), and 22 min after a potentially frustrating task (T3). Repeated measures analyses showed that prenatally exposed girls showed higher cortisol levels across the three episodes compared to nonexposed girls. No differences were found in boys. Maternal prenatal emotional complaints might be related to child HPA-axis functioning differently for boys and girls. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 51: 553–563, 2009.

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