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Fetal exposure to prenatal maternal stress can have lifelong consequences, with different types of maternal stress associated with different areas of child development. Fewer studies have focused on motor skills, even though they are strongly predictive of later development across a range of domains. Research on mechanisms of transmission has identified biological cascades of stress reactions, yet links between psychological stress reactions are rarely studied. This study investigates the relationship between different aspects of disaster-related prenatal maternal stress and child cognitive and motor development, and proposes a cascade of stress reactions as a potential mechanism of transmission. Mothers in the Queensland Flood Study (QF2011) exposed to a major flood during pregnancy completed questionnaires assessing flood exposure, symptoms of peritraumatic distress, dissociation, and posttraumatic stress (PTSD), and cognitive appraisal of the overall flood consequences. At 16 months post-partum, children's (N = 145) cognitive and motor development was assessed using the Bayley-III. Flood exposure predicted child cognitive development and maternal PTSD symptoms and negative cognitive appraisal were significantly negatively related to child motor development, with all relationships moderated by timing of exposure. Together, a cascade of stress reactions linked maternal flood exposure to poorer fine motor development. These findings suggest that the way stress reactions operate together is as important as the way they operate in isolation, and identifies a potential psychological mechanism of transmission for the effects of prenatal stress. Results have implications for conceptualizing prenatal stress research and optimizing child development in the wake of natural disasters.

Exposure to adverse experiences during pregnancy, such as a natural disaster, can modify development of the child with potential long-term consequences. Elemental hair analysis may provide useful indicators of cellular homeostasis and child health. The present study investigated (1) if flood-induced prenatal maternal stress is associated with altered hair elemental profiles in 4-year-old children, and (2) if hair elemental profiles are associated with behavioural outcomes in children. Participants were 75 children (39 boys; 36 girls) whose mothers were exposed to varying levels of stress due to a natural disaster (2011 Queensland Flood, Australia) during pregnancy. At 4 years of age, language development, attention and internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed and scalp hair was collected. Hair was analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for 28 chemical elements. A significant curvilinear association was found between maternal objective hardship and copper levels in boys, as low and high maternal objective hardship levels were associated with the highest hair copper levels. Mediation analysis revealed that low levels of maternal objective hardship and high levels of copper were associated with lower vocabulary scores. Higher levels of maternal objective hardship were associated with higher magnesium levels, which in turn were associated with attention problems and aggression in boys. In girls, high and low maternal objective hardship levels were associated with high calcium/potassium ratios. Elemental hair analysis may provide a sensitive biomonitoring tool for early identification of health risks in vulnerable children. • Maternal exposure to natural disasters during pregnancy alters child development. • Low and high prenatal objective maternal hardship is associated with elevated hair copper accumulation in boys. • Low levels of maternal hardship and high levels of copper were associated with lower vocabulary scores in boys. • High maternal hardship was associated with high magnesium levels, inattention, and aggression in boys. • Prenatal adversity was indicated by sex-specific hair mineral signatures and behavioural outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism of the serotonin transporter has been shown to play a role in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Moreover, disaster-related prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) has also been shown to be associated with ASD. However, no study to date has examined whether these two factors, either individually or in combination, are predictive of ASD traits in the same sample. We hypothesized that children, particularly boys, with the LL genotype exposed to high levels of disaster-related PNMS would exhibit higher levels of ASD traits compared to boys with the LS or SS genotypes and girls regardless of genotype. Genotype and ASD levels obtained using the Australian normed Autism Spectrum Rating Scales - Short Form were available for 105 30-month-old children exposed to varying levels of PNMS following the 2011 Queensland Flood. For boys, higher ASD traits were associated with the 5-HTTLPR LL genotype in combination with either a negative maternal appraisal of the flood, or high levels of maternal composite subjective stress, PSTD-like or peritraumatic dissociation symptoms. For girls, maternal peritraumatic dissociation levels in combination with the 5-HTTLPR LS or SS genotype were associated with higher ASD traits. The present findings are the first to demonstrate that children's genotype moderates effects of disaster-related PNMS on ASD traits, with different pattern according to child sex.

Background: It is well recognized that childhood sleep, attention and mood problems increase risk for multiple adverse outcomes across the life-span; therefore, understanding factors, such as prenatal maternal stress, that underlie these types of childhood problems is critical for developing interventions that may optimize longer-term functioning. Our goal was to determine the association between disaster-related stress in pregnancy and young children's sleep, attention, and anxious/depressed symptoms., Methods: Soon after a major flood in Australia in 2011, we assessed various aspects of disaster-related prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) in women who had been pregnant at the time. Mothers rated several domains of their children's development with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at ages 2½ (n = 134) and 4 years (n = 118)., Results: The primary finding was that more severe objective flood-related hardship in pregnancy predicted higher sleep problem scores at 2½ years, and that a negative maternal cognitive appraisal of the flood predicted lower attention problem scores at 2½ years. A cross-lagged panel analysis examined the association between children's sleep, attention, and anxious/depressed symptoms within and across ages. Results showed that these problems were likely to co-occur at each age, and that they were stable from 2½ to 4 years. Additionally, anxious/depressed scores at age 2½ predicted sleep problem scores at 4 years, all else being equal., Limitations: Limitations of the study include a relatively small sample size and the children's outcome data relied on maternal report using the CBCL, rather than independent observation of the children's functioning, which may have introduced reporter bias., Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of early intervention for these childhood problems to optimize long-term mental health, particularly under conditions of prenatal stress., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier B.V.)