Pregnancy affects appraisal of negative life events
Open accessAbstract
Objective It has been demonstrated that physiological responses to stress are diminished late in pregnancy. This study investigates whether emotional responding is diminished as well by measuring affective responses to specific life events during pregnancy.Methods A total of 292 pregnant women reported the occurrence of and affective responses to a range of major life events during gestation. Two analyses were conducted (across events and within events) on these responses to determine whether life events occurring in the first trimester were rated as more stressful than those that occurred in the third trimester.Results Both within-event and across-events analyses of responses to life events demonstrated that events occurring early in pregnancy were perceived as more stressful than events occurring later in pregnancy.Conclusion Responses to stress and affective state are progressively altered in pregnant women, suggesting that timing of stress exposure during gestation may be critical in determining its impact.
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The timing effect may be due to pregnancy anxiety being highest at 19 weeks and decreasing over gestation, consistent with previous observations of reduced stress reactivity as pregnancy advances.
“This effect of timing may be due to the fact that pregnancy anxiety is highest at 19 weeks gestation and decreases over the course of gestation, which is in line with previous observations of reduced physiological and psychological stress reactivity as pregnancy advances (Schulte et al., 1990; Glynn et al., 2001; Glynn et al., 2004; de Weerth & Buitelaar, 2005; Glynn et al., 2008)”
From High pregnancy anxiety during mid-gestation is associated with decreased gray matter density in 6-9-year-old children. (2010) · cites this paper as Glynn et al., 2004
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- Authors
- Glynn, L. M., Schetter, C. D., Wadhwa, P. D., & Sandman, C. A.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Glynn, Laura M
- Venue
- Journal of Psychosomatic Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2004-01
- Volume
- 56
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 47-52
- ISSN
- 0022-3999 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2140674400
- Cited by
- 129
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 5.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- escholarship.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Psychosomatic Research (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- University of California, Irvine
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD028413, HD-28413, R01HD040967, HD40967)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Pregnancy-related medical research
- Keywords
- pregnancy, negative life events, stress appraisal, emotional responses, perceived stress, first trimester, third trimester, physiological stress response
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Affect, Attitude, Female, Humans, Life Change Events, Pregnancy, Prenatal Care, Surveys and Questionnaires
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