Peer-reviewed article
Maternal Stress During Pregnancy and Early Childhood Development
Matías Berthelon, Diana Krüger, Rafael Myro Sánchez ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how maternal stress during pregnancy affects children's development by age 2, using a longitudinal dataset of children and parents. Children exposed to prenatal stress had normal birth weights but showed lower developmental and cognitive skills and more attention problems by age 2 compared to unexposed children. The negative effects were strongest when stress occurred in the first trimester. The impacts varied by income level and child gender, with lower-income children showing greater cognitive delays and high-income children showing more attention problems.
Key points
- Prenatal stress exposure did not affect birth weight but led to lower development and cognitive skills by age 2
- Negative impacts were observed only when maternal stress occurred during the first trimester of pregnancy
- Cognitive and developmental delays were concentrated in children from lower-income families
- Attention problems from prenatal stress appeared in children from higher-income families
- Boys showed lower overall development and worse attention problems; girls' cognitive skills were negatively affected
Limitations
The study examined outcomes only up to age 2, so longer-term effects of prenatal stress on development are unknown. The document does not specify the types or severity of maternal stress measured, or provide details on sample size and loss to follow-up.
Abstract
There is a consensus in the literature on the relevance of the first 1,000 days since conception in the development of a child's cognitive and non-cognitive skills. However, little is known of the determinants of these skills at that age, as previous literature has focused on the effect of in utero and early childhood shocks on outcomes at birth or at age 7 and beyond. In this paper, we analyze the impact of prenatal stress on cognitive and non-cognitive development of the child by age 2. By exploiting a longitudinal dataset of children and their parents, we find that children who were exposed in-utero to maternal stress do not have different birth-weight relative to those who were not exposed, yet by age 2, exposed children had a lower level of development, cognition skills, and more attention problems relative to children not exposed to in utero stress. We also find that the negative impacts are observed if in-utero stress occurs during the first trimester of pregnancy. The negative impact on cognitive skills and development is concentrated on lower-income children and attention problems occur among high-income children, and boys suffer lower development and worse attention problems, while girls' cognition is negatively affected by in-utero stress.