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Prenatal Maternal Stress and Pediatric Asthma Across Development: Adolescent Female-Specific Vulnerability

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Abstract

Prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) is linked to physical sequelae in offspring, including childhood asthma. This study sought to examine the roles of objective and subjective PNMS in the development of asthma at offspring ages 5 and 15. The sample included 815 mother–child dyads from the Mater Misericordiae Mothers’ Hospital-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy. PNMS was measured via retrospective self-report during pregnancy and 3–5 days after birth. Postnatal maternal stress was measured at offspring age 5. Objective PNMS was associated with elevated asthma risk at age 5 (OR 1.21, 95% CI 1.00, 1.45, p = 0.05), albeit not above concurrent postnatal stress. Sex moderated the association between PNMS and asthma at age 15, controlling for postnatal stress. Sex stratified analyses revealed a positive association between objective PNMS and age 15 asthma in females, but not males. Results provide evidence that PNMS may impact asthma outcomes in adolescence.

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Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the MUSP, M900, and M20 Research Teams and the participating families. We also thank the principal investigators of the Mater-University Study of Pregnancy study, and the Brisbane, Australia staff coordinators.

Funding

This research was supported by NIMH R01MH052239. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Temple University, 1701 N 13th St, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Madeline R. Pike & Emily Lipner

  2. Department of Psychology, Emory University, 36 Eagle Row, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Melissa L. Engel & Patricia A. Brennan

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Constance Hammen

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Contributions

MRP: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing-Original draft preparation; MLE: Writing-Reviewing and Editing, Supervision; EL: Visualization, Formal Analysis, Writing-Reviewing and Editing; CH: Conceptualization, Resources, Supervision, Funding; PAB: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Resources, Funding, Writing-Reviewing and Editing.

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Correspondence to Madeline R. Pike.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Research Involving Human and Animal Rights

All procedures performed in this study with human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional, relevant national guidelines on human experimentation, and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Specifically, this research protocol was approved by the institutional committees and Internal Review Boards of Emory University, University of Queensland, and UCLA.

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Pike, M.R., Engel, M.L., Lipner, E. et al. Prenatal Maternal Stress and Pediatric Asthma Across Development: Adolescent Female-Specific Vulnerability. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01600-2

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