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Updated: Jul 30, 2025

Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
Published on: June 13, 2021
Adverse Childhood Experiences Predict Diurnal Cortisol Throughout Gestation
Lisa S Panisch1, Hannah R Murphy, Qiuyi Wu
1From the Wayne State University School of Social Work (Panisch), Detroit, Michigan; Translational Biomedical Science (Murphy), University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry; Wynne Center for Family Research (Murphy, Duberstein, Arnold, O'Connor), University of Rochester; Biostatistics and Computational Biology (Wu, Qiu), University of Rochester Medical Center; Obstetrics and Gynecology (Brunner, Best, Barrett, Miller, O'Connor) and Psychology (Duberstein, Arnold, O'Connor), University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Rutgers School of Public Health (Barrett); Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (Barrett), Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey; and Neuroscience (O'Connor) and Psychiatry (O'Connor), University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.
Objective:
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with negative prenatal and perinatal health outcomes and may, via these pathways, have intergenerational effects on child health and development. We examine the impact of ACEs on maternal salivary cortisol, a key measure of prenatal biology previously linked with pregnancy-related health outcomes.
Methods:
Leveraging assessments across three trimesters, we used linear mixed-effects models to analyze the influence of ACEs on maternal prenatal diurnal cortisol patterns in a diverse cohort of pregnant women (analytic sample, n = 207). Covariates included comorbid prenatal depression, psychiatric medications, and sociodemographic factors.
Results:
Maternal ACEs were significantly associated with flatter diurnal cortisol slopes (i.e., less steep decline), after adjusting for covariates, with effects consistent across gestation (estimate = 0.15, standard error = 0.06, p = .008).
Conclusions:
ACEs experienced before pregnancy may have a robust and lasting influence on maternal prenatal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity throughout gestation, a key biological marker associated with perinatal and child health outcomes. The findings suggest one route of intergenerational transmission of early adverse experiences and underscore the potential value of assessing prepregnancy adverse experiences for promoting perinatal and maternal and child health.
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