Cited by 40Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and PostpartumChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional DevelopmentInfant Development and Preterm Care

Prenatal maternal mood entropy is associated with child neurodevelopment.

Open access
Howland, Mariann A., Sandman, Curt A., Davis, Elysia Poggi, Stern, Hal S., Phelan, Michael, Baram, Tallie Z., Glynn, Laura M.·2021·Emotion

Abstract

Emerging evidence indicates that the predictability of signals early in life may influence the developing brain. This study examines links between a novel indicator of maternal mood dysregulation, mood entropy, and child neurodevelopmental outcomes. Associations between prenatal maternal mood entropy and child neurodevelopment were assessed in 2 longitudinal cohorts. Maternal mood was measured several times over pregnancy beginning as early as 15 weeks' gestation. Shannon's mood entropy was applied to distributions of mothers' responses on mood questionnaires. Child cognitive and language development were evaluated at 2 and 6-9 years of age. Higher prenatal maternal mood entropy was associated with lower cognitive development scores at 2 years of age and lower expressive language scores at 6-9 years of age. These associations persisted after adjusting for maternal pre and postnatal mood levels and for other relevant sociodemographic factors. Our findings identify maternal mood entropy as a novel predictor of child neurodevelopment. Characterizing components of maternal mood in addition to level of severity or valence may further our understanding of specific processes by which maternal mood shapes child development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

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  • Long-term neurodevelopmental impairments of the offspring include cognitive, language, social-emotional, learning and memory, and behavioral problems, as well as neuropsychiatric dysfunction.

    “In addition, the long-term neurodevelopmental impairments of the offspring include a spectrum of cognitive, language, social-emotional, learning and memory, and behavioral problems, as well as neuropsychiatric dysfunction [13, 24, 26, 34, 40–46].”

    From Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy (2024) · cites this paper as [40]

    The Results report lower child cognitive and expressive-language scores associated with prenatal maternal negative mood, and the Discussion describes poorer memory-task performance in related research. The paper also discusses lasting effects on child emotional function, but it does not establish the full claimed spectrum, particularly social, behavioral, and neuropsychiatric dysfunction in offspring. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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  • Prenatal maternal psychological distress has enduring consequences on long-term neurobehavioral development in the offspring, partially through altered brain structure and circuitry.

    “Prenatal maternal psychological distress has been shown to have enduring consequences on long-term neurobehavioral development in the offspring [13, 24, 26, 34, 40–46], partially through altered brain structure and circuitry [118, 119].”

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Bayley N. (1993). Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Second Edition: Manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
  2. Wechsler D. (2003). Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) administration and scoring manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.

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Authors
Howland, M. A., Sandman, C. A., Davis, E. P., Stern, H. S., Phelan, M., Baram, T. Z., & Glynn, L. M.
Affiliations
  • University of Minnesota (US)
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
  • University of Denver (US)
  • Chapman University (US)
Corresponding author
Howland, Mariann A.
Venue
Emotion
Published
2021-04
Volume
21
Issue
3
Pages
489-498
ISSN
  • 1528-3542 (ISSN-L)
  • 1931-1516
OpenAlex
W3012577332
Cited by
40
References
97
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1
FWCI
2.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Emotion (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Chapman University Digital Commons (Chapman University) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Institutes of Health (HD-28413, HD-40967, HD-51852, NS-41298, MH-96889)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Infant Development and Preterm Care
Keywords
child neurodevelopment, child cognitive development, expressive language development, Shannon entropy, early pregnancy, maternal mental health, developmental prediction
MeSH terms
Adult, Affect, Child, Child Development, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mothers, Pregnancy, Cohort Studies, Entropy, Neurodevelopmental Disorders

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