Читать книгу Child Psychology - Jean-Pascal Assailly - Страница 70

Exposure to maternal psychopathology, or stress, during pregnancy is associated with prematurity and low birth weight and, in the longer term, with behavioral, emotional, cognitive and motor problems in childhood and psychiatric disorders in adolescence. This intergenerational transmission of psychopathology and stress would be due to a combination of intrauterine environment, genetic factors and postnatal environment.

The fetus and then the infant adapt in response to the health and physical state of the mother, modifying important physiological and metabolic processes that can last into adulthood: for example, the HPA² axis plays an important role in many of the body’s homeostatic systems and in the body’s response to stress, with HPA axis activity being measured by cortisol levels.

For example, maternal psychopathology during the prenatal period is associated with increased cortisol in the child’s hair at age six years (Molenaar 2019). Thus, maternal psychopathology and stress during pregnancy are associated with the child’s long-term HPA axis activity.