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In animal research, maternal stress during pregnancy has been associated with dysregulation of cortisol rhythms and emotional responses in offspring, possibly due to “reprogramming” of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis during fetal development. This hypothesis has been tested, with mixed results, in cross-sectional, retrospective human studies and in a few prospective studies of prepubertal children. These researchers prospectively examined the effects of maternal anxiety during pregnancy on cortisol rhythms and depressive symptoms in postpubertal adolescents, ages 14 and 15; 58 mother–child pairs had complete data.
Mothers rated their anxiety during gestation on a standardized scale three times (during weeks 12–22, 23–31, and 32…