Maternal Psychological Resilience During Pregnancy and Newborn Telomere Length: A Prospective Study
Glenn Verner1, Elissa Epel1, Marius Lahti-Pulkkinen1
1Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Institute of Medical Psychology, Berlin (Verner, Buss, Entringer); Department of Psychiatry, San Francisco School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (Epel); Department of Psychology and Logopedics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Lahti-Pulkkinen, Räikkönen); Department of Public Health Solutions, THL National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki and Oulu, Finland, PEDEGO Research Unit, MRC Oulu, Oulu University Hospital and University of Oulu, Oulu, Department of Clinical and Molecular Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, and Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Kajantie); Department of Pediatrics and UC Irvine Development, Health, and Disease Research Program, University of California, Irvine (Buss, Wadhwa, Entringer); Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics (Lin, Blackburn) and Department of Microbiology and Immunology (Blackburn), University of California, San Francisco; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Department of Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine (Wadhwa).
Objective:
In the context of the importance of elucidating the determinants of the initial, newborn setting of telomere length (TL), it is increasingly evident that maternal stress and stress-related processes during pregnancy play a major role. Although psychological resilience may function as a buffer, research in this area has not yet examined its potential role vis-à-vis that of stress. The authors examined the relationship between maternal psychological resilience during pregnancy and newborn TL.
Methods:
In a sample of 656 mother-child dyads from the Prediction and Prevention of Preeclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction cohort, multiple serial assessments were conducted over the course of pregnancy to quantify maternal stress, negative and positive emotional responses to pregnancy events, positive affect, and perceived social support. Principal component analysis identified two latent factors: stress and positivity. A measure of resilience was computed by regressing the positivity factor on the stress factor, in order to quantify positivity after accounting for stress. TL was measured using quantitative polymerase chain reaction in leukocytes extracted from cord blood shortly after birth. Linear regression was used to predict newborn TL from maternal resilience during pregnancy, adjusting for other potential determinants.
Results:
Maternal stress significantly predicted shorter newborn TL (β=-0.079), and positivity significantly predicted longer TL (β=0.135). Maternal resilience (positivity accounting for stress) was significantly and positively associated with newborn TL (β=0.114, 95% CI=0.035, 0.189), with each standard deviation increase in resilience predicting 12% longer newborn TL.
Conclusions:
The results indicate that maternal psychological resilience may exert a salubrious effect on offspring telomere biology and highlight the importance of enhancing maternal mental health and well-being during pregnancy.
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