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High Antenatal Maternal Anxiety Is Related to ADHD Symptoms, Externalizing Problems, and Anxiety in 8‐ and 9‐Year‐Olds
Author(s) -
Van den Bergh Bea R.H.,
Marcoen Alfons
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00727.x
Subject(s) - anxiety , psychology , pregnancy , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , situational ethics , anxiety disorder , psychiatry , social psychology , genetics , biology
Associations between antenatal maternal anxiety, measured with the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and disorders in 8‐ and 9‐year‐olds were studied prospectively in 71 normal mothers and their 72 firstborns. Clinical scales were completed by the mother, the child, the teacher, and an external observer. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that maternal state anxiety during pregnancy explained 22%, 15%, and 9% of the variance in cross‐situational attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, externalizing problems, and self‐report anxiety, respectively, even after controlling for child's gender, parents' educational level, smoking during pregnancy, birth weight, and postnatal maternal anxiety. Anxiety at 12 to 22 weeks postmenstrual age turned out to be a significant independent predictor whereas anxiety at 32 to 40 weeks was not. Results are consistent with a fetal programming hypothesis.