Latent profiles of maternal psychopathology and risk for lifetime/perinatal substance use: Findings from the HBCD study.

Development of children at age 7-8years after intrauterine exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) - Results from the Dutch prospective cohort SMOK study.

The association of preconception and prenatal cannabis and tobacco exposure with autism symptoms in offspring: A population-based longitudinal study.

BackgroundInsomnia disorder is a modifiable risk factor for maternal and offspring psychopathology, yet it remains overlooked in low-resource settings like Malawi, where maternal mental health services are underprioritised.AimTo assess the prevalence and associated psychiatric factors for insomnia disorder among pregnant women at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH).SettingAntenatal care unit (ANC) at KCH, Lilongwe.MethodsA cross-sectional design was employed. Systematic random sampling was used to select 110 pregnant women. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to evaluate insomnia. Descriptive and logistic regression established the association between socio-demographic, obstetric, sleep arrangement and biometric factors and sleep quality.ResultsThe prevalence of insomnia disorder was found to be 79.1% (mean PSQI = 8.77 ± 3.79), indicating significant sleep disturbances. Logistic regression revealed a significant association with gestation, participants in the second trimester (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 5.21, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.49–18.26, p = 0.010) being at higher risk and increased odds among married women (odds ratio [OR] = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.13–0.48, p = 0.038) and those sharing bed (OR = 5.28, 95% CI: 1.14–24.55, p = 0.034) at higher risk of poor sleep quality.ConclusionPoor sleep quality is common among pregnant women in Malawi, with trimester-specific and psychosocial predictors elevating psychiatric risks.ContributionIntegration of sleep screening and perinatal mental health interventions into antenatal care is urgently needed in the second trimester to mitigate adverse maternal and offspring outcomes.

Objective: A paucity of research exists on the subject of positive child relationship behavior toward parents, particularly in children with mental disorders. Method: We invited the mothers of children 3 to 7years with mental disorders according to the ICD-10 to complete questionnaires on positive child relationship behavior, child behavior problems, maternal psychopathology, dysfunctional parenting, and maternal sense of competence. Results: 71 children (56 boys and 15 girls, mean age= 64.07 [SD= 11.75] months with their mothers (mean age= 33.94 [SD= 6.49] years) participated in this pilot study. Children with primarily internalizing disorders did not differ from the general population regarding the frequency of positive relationship-relevant behavior toward their mothers. Conversely, children with externalizing disorders and those with a residual diagnosis exhibited significantly lower frequencies of positive behavior toward their mothers. Dysfunctional parenting behavior and maternal psychopathology did not correlate with the frequency of children's positive relationship behavior toward their mothers. However, maternal sense of competence correlated significantly positively with positive child relationship behavior. Conclusions: It is imperative to systematically assess positive child relationship behavior as perceived by their parents to obtain a more comprehensive perspective on the child.

The role of psychological flexibility in mindful parenting during the postpartum period: A longitudinal study on the mediating effect of maternal psychopathology

Maternal vulnerability to insomnia: Relationship with poor newborn sleep and peripartum psychopathology.

Prenatal maternal stress negatively impacts maternal mental health and mother-child interaction, potentially increasing the risk of developmental outcomes in offspring. While studies in humans and lab animals have established these associations, the underlying mechanisms in naturalistic settings, where stressors are dynamic and interspecies differences may emerge, remain poorly characterized. This study introduced a novel model system using wild Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii) to investigate the effects of maternal depression-like psychopathology on offspring mood, cognition, and brain development. This model involves the repeated exposure of pregnant voles to predator odors, a natural stressor, which induces a depression-like state from late pregnancy to the early postpartum period. This model integrates ecologically relevant stressors with neurobehavioral assessments in a wild-derived species, allowing for a mechanistic investigation in a biologically meaningful context. We found that while exposure to predator odor stress during pregnancy induced maternal depressive-like states, it did not alter the level of postnatal parent-offspring interaction. Offspring born to mothers exposed to predator odor during pregnancy exhibited increased anxiety- and depression-like behaviors, impaired spatial and social cognition, and reduced sociability compared to offspring of mothers exposed to distilled water. These offspring also showed reduced neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus, along with decreased dendrite branching and spine density. Our findings suggest that the effects of depression-like states during pregnancy and postpartum in female Brandt's voles on offspring brain and behavioral functions occur independently of parent-offspring interactions, with hippocampal structural and functional abnormalities potentially mediating behavioral deficits. Importantly, this work establishes Brandt's voles as a new, ecologically valid animal model for studying gestational depression and its intergenerational outcomes, bridging the gap between laboratory rodent studies and natural behavioral contexts.

Conditions associated with reduced harsh parenting among mothers with depressive symptoms or antisocial behavior.

Background:Childhood adversity is widespread globally and is one of the strongest predictors of later psychopathology. However, the differential effects of type and timing of childhood adversities on childhood psychopathology remain unclear, highlighting the need to explore which life-course hypotheses (sensitive periods, accumulation of exposure, and/or recency of exposure) best explain these associations. Of particular importance, there is a lack of research in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), where children experience higher rates of adversity relative to children in high-income countries (HIC).Methods:Participants included 787 children and their mothers from a South African birth cohort, the Drakenstein Child Health Study. Mothers reported child exposure to adversity from birth to 8 years of age across six adversity categories. We used the two-stage Structured Life Course Modeling Approach (SLCMA) to examine life-course associations between childhood adversity exposures and internalizing/externalizing symptoms measured using the Child Behavior Checklist at age 8 years.Results:Maternal psychopathology, maternal adverse events, child food insecurity, and child exposure to community/domestic violence had the strongest associations with child psychopathology symptoms, with varying life-course models selected. The accumulation hypothesis best explained associations of maternal adverse events (partial R2=2.3%) and child exposure to community/domestic violence (partial R2=1.6%) with internalizing symptoms. The combined middle childhood sensitive period (age 5≤8 years) and recency hypotheses model best explained associations between maternal psychopathology and internalizing (partial R2=7.0%) or externalizing (partial R2=5.1) symptoms.Conclusions:We identified that different types and timing of childhood adversity confer differential risk for childhood psychopathology symptoms in this LMIC sample. Our work has implications for strategically-timed intervention and prevention strategies to improve mental health, which may need to be specifically designed for children in LMIC.

Abstract Study question What are the prevalence, temporal patterns of grief and depression symptoms in couples following pregnancy loss? Summary answer 10% of couples exhibited mutual moderate or above depression; over 50% demonstrated reproductive complicated grief, with dyadic grief-depression associations reaching significance. What is known already Pregnancy loss affects 10-15% of pregnancies but is stigmatized in societies as disenfranchised grief, restricting parental mourning. Existing research predominantly examines maternal psychopathology, neglecting male partners and dyadic dynamics. The temporal evolution of grief-depression comorbidity in couples—particularly in societies where familial pressures may compound distress—is poorly understood. Current clinical practice prioritizes individual depression screening, potentially overlooking grief-specific manifestations critical for couples’ mental health recovery. Study design, size, duration A cross-sectional dyadic study recruited couples via hospital networks and online platforms from September to October 2024 in Hong Kong, China. Participants completed validated Chinese versions of 1) Patient Health Questionnaire and 2) Reproductive Grief Screening to assess depression and reproductive complicated grief. Participants/materials, setting, methods This study enrolled 246 couples with pregnancy loss history, predominantly married (90.2%) and full-time employed (76.6%). The cohort exhibited high educational attainment (69.1% bachelor’s degree or higher), with 60.1% reporting no religious affiliation. Main results and the role of chance The study revealed profound psychological impacts among couples experiencing pregnancy loss. Over half of the couples demonstrated reproductive complicated grief, and 10% of couples reported moderate or above depression symptoms jointly after Pregnancy loss. Within the first year of pregnancy loss, 51.2% of couples mutually exhibited reproductive complicated grief, while 46.5% reported moderate-to-severe depression in at least one partner—33.5% of these couples showed shared depressive symptoms. After one year of pregnancy loss, shared depression decreased significantly (10.1% ), yet 31.3% of couples still had one partner struggling with moderate or above depressive symptoms. Notably, complicated grief remained persistent, affecting 65% of couples long-term. Emotional distress was interconnected: couples with mutual complicated grief faced heightened risks, with 47.1% experiencing moderate or above depressive symptoms (39% in both partners, χ²=68.1, p < 0.001). These findings underscore the need for couple-centered therapeutic interventions addressing both grief and depression, particularly during the vulnerable first year post-loss. Limitations, reasons for caution Insufficient same-sex couples sample—likely attributable to Hong Kong’s lack of legal recognition for non-heteronormative partnerships—fundamentally limits clinical recruitment channels and restricts generalizability to LGBTQ+ populations experiencing disenfranchised perinatal grief. Wider implications of the findings Clinical practice must integrate grief-related assessment alongside depression screening. Perinatal bereavement protocols should adopt temporally adapted interventions: acute-phase depression management and chronic-phase grief resolution. Routine reproductive history screening in couples counseling is imperative. Trial registration number No

Physical and sexual abuse have far-reaching mental and behavioral health consequences, extending across the lifespan and, in some cases, across generations. However, empirical work in this area is limited by cross-sectional study designs, short follow-up durations, and data analytic techniques that fail to capture the nuanced developmental processes through which caregivers and children impact one another. The present study investigated the cross-lagged and bidirectional pathways between maternal childhood victimization, depression, harsh parenting, and their children's externalizing symptoms over a 10-year period. Participants were 818 mother-child dyads prospectively identified as at-risk for family violence when children were four years old. Traditional cross-lagged panel modeling (CLPM) and random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM) documented that maternal depression, harsh parenting, and child externalizing problems - all predicted by mothers' early abuse experiences - exacerbated one another across time. Discrepancies between the CLPM and RI-CLPM highlighted the advantages, disadvantages, and methodological implications of each approach. Findings highlight maternal psychopathology and parenting as key mechanisms in the intergenerational impact of abuse, emphasizing the importance of trauma-informed, parent-mediated interventions for breaking long-term cycles of family dysfunction. The present findings support separating out between-person, trait-like components when interpreting cross-lagged associations, as these may confound within-person effects.

Parental substance use disorder (SUD) constitutes a major public health problem and a well-known risk condition for child development, largely due to exposure to dysfunctional caregiving practices, ranging from less-than-optimal maternal sensitivity to severe forms of abuse or neglect. However, most research focused on specific parenting features or on maternal and child behaviors separately, which may not be representative of the quality of their relationship as a whole. The aim of this study was to identify patterns of dyadic emotional availability and their association with different risk factors in the context of maternal SUD. The study involved 77 mothers with SUD (Mage = 28.55 years, SD = 6.41) and their children (47% male, Mage = 12.47 months, SD = 15.04) receiving residential intervention services. At the time of admission, sociodemographic risk factors and maternal psychopathology were assessed through, respectively, an ad-hoc interview and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised. Mother-child interactions were rated during free-play using the Emotional Availability Scales. Cluster analysis was used to identify potentially different patterns of interactions. Four patterns were identified: "low-functioning dyads," "inconsistent dyads," "inconsistent mother with low functioning child," and "high functioning dyads," where functioning refers to the level of interactive functioning, that is, the quality of interactive behaviors and the degree of emotional availability. These patterns presented differences with respect to some individual (children's age), clinical (prenatal drug exposure) and psychopathological (depression) variables. Findings highlight the need for targeted intervention programs aimed at improving the quality of parenting behaviors and childhood development trajectories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Prenatal stress, epigenetically-assessed glucocorticoid exposure at birth, and child psychiatric symptoms: A prospective, multi-cohort study.

Adolescent externalizing problems are commonly linked to maternal psychological distress and family functioning, but these associations remain underexplored in the Greek sociocultural context. This study examined how maternal symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, along with adolescent-perceived family functioning, predict externalizing behaviors in Greek adolescents. A total of 563 adolescent–mother dyads (63.4% girls; M_age = 15.03 and SD = 0.83) participated. Mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), and the Family Assessment Device (FAD–GF), while adolescents completed the Youth Self-Report (YSR) and FAD–GF. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that adolescent-perceived family functioning was the strongest predictor of externalizing behavior (β = 0.24 and p < 0.001), even after accounting for demographic and maternal mental health variables. The final model explained 18% of the variance in adolescent externalizing problems. Mediation analysis confirmed that family functioning partially mediated the relationship between maternal depression and adolescent externalizing problems, with a significant indirect effect (a × b = 0.088, Sobel z = 2.90, and p = 0.004). Gender differences were found for self-reported aggressive behavior (t = −2.40, p = 0.017, and d = 0.20), with girls scoring higher than boys. These findings highlight the indirect impact of maternal depression through family dynamics and underscore the importance of culturally sensitive, family-centered interventions to reduce adolescent externalizing problems.

BackgroundMaternal-fetal attachment might be associated with maternal mental health issues, but previous results have been inconsistent, particularly regarding prenatal anxiety. We compared maternal-fetal attachment between pregnant women with and without symptoms of antenatal depression and anxiety. Additionally, we examined the relationships between prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms, psychosocial stress, and maternal-fetal attachment.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study involving a sample of 2,233 pregnant women. The data were collected between March 2021 and March 2023 at outpatient clinics in the Czech Republic. We used self-report questionnaires to assess symptoms of prenatal depression (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, EPDS), anxiety (Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale, PASS), psychosocial stress (Prenatal Psychosocial Profile, PPP), and maternal-fetal attachment (Prenatal Attachment Inventory – Revised, PAI-R).ResultsWomen without symptoms of antenatal depression had higher total scores on the PAI-R (U = 336,357; p = .013) and on the PAI-R Interaction subscale (U = 322,913; p < .001), suggesting a higher quality of maternal-fetal attachment than women with symptoms. No other significant associations were found between antenatal depression, anxiety and the PAI-R subscales scores.ConclusionsOur results suggest that women experiencing increased depressive, but not anxiety, symptoms in pregnancy, have a poorer quality of attachment to their child, although the effect size is small. Consequently, treating prenatal depression in women could have a positive effect on maternal-fetal attachment.

Women with a history of sexual trauma (ST) have heightened risk for postpartum psychopathology. Although ST increases risk for traumatic delivery and maternal psychopathology, knowledge of the functional connections among various psychiatric symptoms and complicated delivery remains limited. We used regularized partial correlation networks to examine connections between symptoms of childbirth-related PTSD (CB-PTSD), depression, anxiety, somatization, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and complicated delivery (e.g., presence of obstetric complications, preterm birth, advanced maternal age) in 1,916 postpartum women. We compared networks of women with and without a history of sexual trauma (nST = 958 and nNST = 958, respectively). Complicated delivery in both groups connected with three CB-PTSD clusters: reexperiencing, avoidance, and negative alterations in cognition and mood. Network comparison tests revealed a significant difference in global strength invariance, but not network invariance. ST network CB-PTSD nodes were significantly more strongly interconnected as compared to those with no ST (NST). Conversely, stronger connections in the NST network were Mood with Anxiety and Avoidance with Somatic symptoms. The ST group's stronger PTSD symptom coactivation may reflect differences in risk for the emergence of CB-PTSD for women with a history of ST.

Childhood trauma experiences can carry over to the next generation, affecting the health and behavior of survivors' children. However, the mechanisms underlying these intergenerational effects of childhood trauma are not yet clear. One mechanism may be changes in children's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This preregistered longitudinal study examined associations between 170 mothers' childhood trauma experiences (maltreatment, family and peer violence) and their children's cortisol reactivity and total circadian cortisol output at 12 months and 6 years of age. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that maternal childhood trauma was not significantly associated with child cortisol reactivity or total circadian cortisol output, neither at 12 months nor at 6 years of age. Thus, we found no evidence in this community sample that maternal childhood trauma impacts young children's HPA axis functioning. Exploratory analyses revealed moderation effects of maternal prenatal psychopathology and prenatal circadian cortisol slope: in mothers with high prenatal psychopathology or circadian cortisol slope, maternal childhood trauma was positively associated with child total circadian cortisol output, while this association was negative in mothers with low psychopathology or circadian cortisol slope. Future research should replicate these findings in older children and more severely trauma-exposed populations and further explore moderators of this intergenerational association.

Human milk (HM) is considered the best source of infant nutrition with many benefits for the infant. However, pregnancy changes can lead to increased stress in some women, which might affect HM composition. Although studies have demonstrated a link between maternal psychopathology and child development, it remains unclear how maternal psychobiological changes can be intergenerationally transmitted. We aimed to investigate the associations of maternal stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms with the HM microbiome; to analyze these parameters in relation to HM glucocorticoid concentrations; and to explore the influence of HM glucocorticoids on HM bacterial composition. One hundred women completed psychological questionnaires (e.g., EPDS, STAI, GAS) at 34-36 weeks' gestation and in the early postpartum period and provided saliva at 34-36 and 38 weeks' gestation. HM samples were collected in the early postpartum. Microbiota were analyzed using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Birth anxiety was negatively correlated with Alphaproteobacteria (τ = -0.20, FDR = 0.01), whereas in the postpartum period, anxiety symptoms were negatively correlated with different taxa. The sum of postpartum-related symptoms was linked to lower Propionibacteriales. Salivary cortisol AUCg at 34-36 weeks was negatively correlated with Stenotrophomonas (τ = -0.24, FDR = 0.05), whereas HM cortisol was positively correlated with Streptococcus mitis (τ = 0.26, FDR = 0.03) and Gemella haemolysans (τ = 0.24, FDR = 0.02). No associations emerged between psychobiological parameters and HM glucocorticoids. Higher perinatal psychological symptoms and prenatal salivary cortisol AUCg were associated with lower relative abundances of different bacteria, whereas higher HM cortisol was linked to higher Gemella and Streptococcus. These findings suggest a negative association between high maternal psychobiological symptoms and relative abundances of the milk microbiota.

Early language is shaped by parent-child interactions and has been examined in relation to maternal psychopathology and parenting stress. Minimal work has examined the relation between maternal emotion dysregulation and toddler vocabulary development. This longitudinal study examined associations between maternal emotion dysregulation prenatally, maternal everyday stress at 7months postpartum, and toddler vocabulary at 18months. Data were collected from 289 typically developing, monolingual children (54% female) and their mothers (63% White and non-Hispanic; 56% held a college degree). During pregnancy, maternal emotion dysregulation was measured via self-report and resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Mothers completed questionnaires about their perceived everyday stress and their child's vocabulary at 7 and 18months postpartum, respectively. Path analysis revealed that expectant mothers' self-reported emotion dysregulation was indirectly associated with toddlers' expressive vocabulary via their level of postpartum perceived everyday stress. In addition, prenatal maternal resting RSA directly predicted toddlers' expressive vocabulary size. These findings yield insights into the mechanisms by which perinatal mental health may shape early language development and highlight the potential utility of interventions targeting emotion dysregulation during pregnancy.