Maternal antenatal anxiety postnatal stroking and emotional problems in children: outcomes predicted from pre- and postnatal programming hypotheses

摘要

BackgroundMothers' self-reported stroking of their infants over the first weeks of life modifies the association between prenatal depression and physiological and emotional reactivity at 7 months, consistent with animal studies of the effects of tactile stimulation. We now investigate whether the effects of maternal stroking persist to 2.5 years. Given animal and human evidence for sex differences in the effects of prenatal stress we compare associations in boys and girls.