Journal
SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHIATRIC EPIDEMIOLOGY
Volume 56, Issue 4, Pages 559-570Publisher
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG
DOI: 10.1007/s00127-020-01964-z
Keywords
Child development; Postnatal depression; Developmental epidemiology; Fetal programming; Mother-teacher disagreement
Categories
Funding
- Stryhns Holding A/S
- Danish National Board of Social Services
- Odense University Hospital
- Region of Southern Denmark
- Municipality of Odense
- Mental Health Service of the Region of Southern Denmark
- Ronald McDonald Children Foundation
- Odense Patient data Exploratory Network (OPEN)
- Health Foundation (Helsefonden)
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Maternal prenatal stress predicts toddler emotional and behavioral problems, while postnatal depressive symptoms are associated with increased maternal reporting of toddler problems. Mothers report more toddler psychological problems than teachers.
Purpose Maternal prenatal stress and postnatal depression are reported to increase the risk for early offspring psychological problems. We examined whether these two stressors predicted toddler emotional or behavioral problems based on the mother and teacher reports, respectively. Methods A longitudinal study within the Odense Child Cohort (OCC). Prenatal stress was assessed (gestation week 28) using Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Depressive symptoms were assessed (3 months after birth) using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Behavioral and emotional problems were assessed by mothers using the preschool version of Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and by teachers using the caregiver-teacher report form (CTR-F). Results N = 1302 mother-child dyads were included. CBCL (N = 1302) was collected at 29 months (SD 5.3) and C-TRF (N = 989) at 32.6 months (SD 6.9).N = 70 mothers (5.4%) were at high risk for postnatal depression (EPDS score > 12). Generalized additive models showed that prenatal stress (increase of + 1 on PSS-10 total score) predicted an increase in CBCL (+ 0.011) and C-TRF (+ 0.015) total scores. Postnatal depressive symptoms (increase of + 1 on EPDS total score) only predicted an increase in CBCL total score (+ 0.026). Conclusion Prenatal maternal stress was a significant predictor of both mother and teacher reported toddler emotional and behavioral problems, although effect sizes were small. Postnatal depressive symptoms were associated with increased maternal (but not teacher) reporting of toddler problems. Mothers reported more toddler psychological problems than teachers, and the mother-teacher discrepancy was positively correlated to maternal postnatal depressive symptoms.
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