Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 16, 2026

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Prenatal anxiety predicts individual differences in cortisol in pre-adolescent children
Thomas G O'Connor1, Yoav Ben-Shlomo, Jon Heron
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, 300 Crittenden Boulevard, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. Tom_OConnor@URMC.Rochester.edu
Background:
Animal studies suggest that prenatal stress is associated with long-term disturbance in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function, but evidence in humans is lacking. This study examined the long-term association between prenatal anxiety and measures of diurnal cortisol at age 10 years.
Methods:
Measures of cortisol were collected at awakening, 30 min after awakening, and at 4 pm and 9 pm on 3 consecutive days in a sample of 10-year-olds (n = 74) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a prospective longitudinal cohort study of mothers and children on whom measures of anxiety and depression were collected in pregnancy and the postpartum period. Analyses examined the links between symptoms of prenatal anxiety and multiple indicators of cortisol, an index of HPA axis functioning.
Results:
Prenatal anxiety was significantly associated with individual differences in awakening and afternoon cortisol after accounting for obstetric and sociodemographic risk (partial correlations were .32 and .25, p < .05). The effect for awakening cortisol remained significant after controlling for multiple postnatal assessments of maternal anxiety and depression.
Conclusions:
This study provides the first human evidence that prenatal anxiety might have lasting effects on HPA axis functioning in the child and that prenatal anxiety might constitute a mechanism for an increased vulnerability to psychopathology in children and adolescents.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Introduction to Stress and Lifestyle
Socioemotional Development during Infancy
Primary Temperament Types
Stella Chess...
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Diagnostic Criteria and Symptoms
To diagnose ADHD, symptoms must manifest before age 12 and be evident across multiple settings.
Stress and Mental Health
Individuals with depression often experience challenges in both their personal and professional...
Social Anxiety Disorder
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development
Exploration...

