Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2022 Oct;144:105863. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105863. Epub 2022 Jul 9.
Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy, including stress resulting from disasters and trauma, has been linked to temperamental difficulties in offspring. Although heightened cortisol concentrations are often hypothesized as an underlying mechanism, evidence supporting this mechanism is not consistent, potentially because of methodological issues and low stress in the population.
To address these issues, this preregistered study investigated the following associations between: 1) prenatal psychological stress and hair cortisol, as a biomarker for chronic stress, during the COVID-19 outbreak (i.e., as a major worldwide psychological stressor), and 2) maternal hair cortisol during the COVID-19 outbreak and later infant temperamental negative affectivity and orienting/regulation. Additionally, we explored whether associations were different for women with low versus high socioeconomic status (SES; maternal education and annual household income) and at different stages of pregnancy.
Pregnant women (N = 100) filled out online questionnaires during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Six months later, when most mothers were still pregnant or had just given birth, maternal hair samples were collected during home visits. When infants were six months old, mothers reported on their infant's temperament.
Although hierarchical regression analyses revealed no associations between prenatal COVID-19 psychological stress and hair cortisol during the COVID-19 outbreak, SES proved to be a moderator in this association. Only pregnant women with higher levels of SES, not lower levels, showed a positive association between work-related and social support-related COVID-19 worries and hair cortisol. Finally, prenatal hair cortisol was not associated with later infant temperamental negative affectivity and orienting/regulation.
Although the COVID-19 outbreak proved to be a major psychological stressor worldwide, the physiological impact of the crisis might be different for pregnant women with higher SES as compared to lower SES.
孕期母体心理压力，包括灾害和创伤引起的压力，与后代的气质困难有关。尽管皮质醇浓度升高通常被假设为潜在机制，但支持这一机制的证据并不一致，这可能是由于方法学问题和人群中压力较低。
为了解决这些问题，本预注册研究调查了以下关联：1）孕期心理压力与头发皮质醇（作为慢性压力的生物标志物）在 COVID-19 爆发期间的关系，以及 2）COVID-19 爆发期间母亲头发皮质醇与后期婴儿气质负性情绪和定向/调节的关系。此外，我们还探讨了这些关联是否因社会经济地位（SES；母亲教育和家庭年收入）较低和较高的女性以及怀孕不同阶段而有所不同。
100 名孕妇在第一次 COVID-19 封锁期间在线填写问卷。六个月后，当大多数母亲仍在怀孕或刚分娩时，在家访期间采集了母亲的头发样本。当婴儿六个月大时，母亲报告了婴儿的气质。
尽管分层回归分析显示，孕期 COVID-19 心理压力与 COVID-19 期间的头发皮质醇之间没有关联，但 SES 证明是这种关联的调节剂。只有 SES 水平较高的孕妇，而不是 SES 水平较低的孕妇，在与工作相关和与社会支持相关的 COVID-19 担忧与头发皮质醇之间存在正相关。最后，孕期头发皮质醇与后期婴儿气质负性情绪和定向/调节无关。
尽管 COVID-19 爆发被证明是全球范围内的一个主要心理压力源，但与 SES 较低的孕妇相比，SES 较高的孕妇的危机生理影响可能不同。
