Prenatal Origins of Stress Regulation: Maternal Psychological Distress and Inflammation During Pregnancy Prospectively Predict Infant Behavioral Reactivity and Regulation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Evolutionary‐developmental theories of stress responsivity contend that the in utero environment shapes offspring biobehavioral regulation in a manner that promotes postnatal functioning. To elucidate how the prenatal environment influences stress regulation, this study tested associations of maternal psychological distress and inflammation during pregnancy, based on both levels and changes over time, with infant behavioral stress regulation (n = 118). In early, mid, and late pregnancy, mothers reported on depressive and anxiety symptoms and completed blood draws that were assayed for pro‐inflammatory cytokines (IL‐6, TNF‐⍺). When infants were 1 month old, research staff administered a heel stick blood draw and coded infant behavioral responses. Greater increases in maternal depressive symptoms and IL‐6 from early to late pregnancy were associated with greater behavioral reactivity to and recovery from the heel stick. Conversely, higher overall levels of IL‐6 predicted lower infant behavioral arousal. Maternal anxiety symptoms during pregnancy did not directly predict infant behavioral regulation, but there was evidence that overall levels of prenatal anxiety predicted infant behavior indirectly via IL‐6. Anxiety symptom levels were associated with TNF‐⍺. Findings add to evidence on prenatal origins of offspring behavioral regulation and suggest that changes in psychobiological processes over the course of pregnancy may distinctly predict infant outcomes.