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. 2024 Feb;36(1):161-169.
doi: 10.1017/S0954579422001055. Epub 2022 Nov 8.

Maternal-prenatal stress and depression predict infant temperament during the COVID-19 pandemic

Jessica L Buthmann  1 , Jonas G Miller  1 , Ian H Gotlib  1
Affiliations

Maternal-prenatal stress and depression predict infant temperament during the COVID-19 pandemic

Jessica L Buthmann et al. Dev Psychopathol. 2024 Feb.

Abstract

Researchers have begun to examine the psychological toll of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. Data are now emerging indicating that there may be long-term adverse effects of the pandemic on new mothers and on children born during this period. In a longitudinal study of maternal mental health and child emotional development during the pandemic, we conducted online assessments of a cohort of women at two time points: when they were pregnant at the beginning of the surge of the pandemic in the United States (baseline, N = 725), and approximately 1 year postpartum (follow-up, N = 296), examining prenatal and postnatal maternal mental health, prenatal pandemic-related stress, and infant temperament. Pandemic-related stress at baseline was associated with concurrent depressive symptoms and infant negative affect at follow-up. Baseline maternal depressive symptoms were associated with follow-up depressive symptoms, which in turn were also associated with infant negative affect. Pandemic-related stress during pregnancy may have enduring effects on infant temperament. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the emotional development of children who were in utero during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; depression; infant temperament; prenatal mental health; stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest. None.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Consort flow diagram of study recruitment, attrition, and completion.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Path diagram of prenatal pandemic stress and postnatal depressive symptoms predicting infant negative affect. Values represent standardized path coefficients. **p < .001, *p < .05.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Infant negative affect by prenatal and postnatal maternal depressive symptoms. Presence of depression determined using a clinical cutoff score of 12 on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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