Maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years

Objective: To test the hypothesis that maternal antenatal exposure to life stress events is associated with lower achievement in literacy and numeracy at age 10 years, with sex differences in this link. Study design: The Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study recruited 2900 women at 18 weeks'...

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Main Authors: Li, Jianghong, Robinson, Monique, Malacova, Eva, Jacoby, Peter, Foster, Jonathan, van Eekelen, Anke
Format: Journal Article
Published: Mosby, Inc. 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33517
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author Li, Jianghong
Robinson, Monique
Malacova, Eva
Jacoby, Peter
Foster, Jonathan
van Eekelen, Anke
author_facet Li, Jianghong
Robinson, Monique
Malacova, Eva
Jacoby, Peter
Foster, Jonathan
van Eekelen, Anke
author_sort Li, Jianghong
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Objective: To test the hypothesis that maternal antenatal exposure to life stress events is associated with lower achievement in literacy and numeracy at age 10 years, with sex differences in this link. Study design: The Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study recruited 2900 women at 18 weeks' pregnancy, and 2868 children were followed up at birth and postnatally. At age 10 years, information on 1038 children was linked to their literacy and numeracy test scores. Multivariate regression models were used to test the foregoing hypotheses, adjusting for important confounders. Results: In girls, maternal antenatal exposure to 4 or more maternal life stress events or death of the mother's friend and/or relative was associated with lower reading scores. In contrast, exposure to 3 or more life stress events or to a pregnancy or financial problem was associated with higher reading scores in boys. Furthermore, maternal exposure to 4 or more life stress events was associated with higher mathematic scores and a residential move was linked to higher writing scores in boys. Conclusion: Maternal antenatal exposure to life stress events has differing effects on the school performance of male and female offspring. Further research is needed to explore the reasons for this sex difference.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-335172019-02-19T04:27:29Z Maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years Li, Jianghong Robinson, Monique Malacova, Eva Jacoby, Peter Foster, Jonathan van Eekelen, Anke maternal antenatal exposure life stress events pregnancy literacy and numeracy Objective: To test the hypothesis that maternal antenatal exposure to life stress events is associated with lower achievement in literacy and numeracy at age 10 years, with sex differences in this link. Study design: The Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort Study recruited 2900 women at 18 weeks' pregnancy, and 2868 children were followed up at birth and postnatally. At age 10 years, information on 1038 children was linked to their literacy and numeracy test scores. Multivariate regression models were used to test the foregoing hypotheses, adjusting for important confounders. Results: In girls, maternal antenatal exposure to 4 or more maternal life stress events or death of the mother's friend and/or relative was associated with lower reading scores. In contrast, exposure to 3 or more life stress events or to a pregnancy or financial problem was associated with higher reading scores in boys. Furthermore, maternal exposure to 4 or more life stress events was associated with higher mathematic scores and a residential move was linked to higher writing scores in boys. Conclusion: Maternal antenatal exposure to life stress events has differing effects on the school performance of male and female offspring. Further research is needed to explore the reasons for this sex difference. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33517 10.1016/j.jpeds.2012.09.007 Mosby, Inc. fulltext
spellingShingle maternal antenatal exposure
life stress events
pregnancy
literacy and numeracy
Li, Jianghong
Robinson, Monique
Malacova, Eva
Jacoby, Peter
Foster, Jonathan
van Eekelen, Anke
Maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years
title Maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years
title_full Maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years
title_fullStr Maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years
title_full_unstemmed Maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years
title_short Maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years
title_sort maternal life stress events in pregnancy link to children's school achievement at age 10 years
topic maternal antenatal exposure
life stress events
pregnancy
literacy and numeracy
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33517