Pregnancy and Infant Development (PRIDE)—a preliminary observational study of maternal adversity and infant development

BACKGROUND: Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families have a markedly elevated risk for impaired cognitive and social-emotional development. Children in poverty experience have a high risk for developmental delays. Poverty engenders disproportionate exposure to psychological adversity which may contribute to impaired offspring development; however the effect may be mitigated by social support and other aspects of resilience. Our objective was to determine the association between maternal stress, adversity and social support and early infant neurobehavior and child behavior at two and three years. METHODS: We conducted a longitudinal mother-infant cohort study nested within a regional home visiting program in Cincinnati, Ohio. Four home study visits were completed to collect measures of maternal stress, adversity and social support and infant and child behavior. A measure of infant neurobehavior (‘high-arousal’ infant) was derived from the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) at 1 month and externalizing and internalizing symptoms were measured by the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at 24 and 36 months. Linear and logistic regression identified associations between maternal risk/protective factors and infant and child behavioral measures. We used stratification and multiplicative interaction terms to examine potential interactions. RESULTS: We enrolled n = 55 pregnant mothers and follow 53 mother–offspring dyads at 1 month, 40 dyads at 24 months and 27 dyads at 36 months. Maternal adversity and protective factors were not associated with neurobehavior at one month. However, maternal depression and measures of distress in pregnancy were significantly associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms at 24 and 36 months. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study established the feasibility of conducting longitudinal research within a community intervention program. In addition, although there were no statistically significant associations between maternal psychosocial factors in pregnancy and infant neurobehavior, there were several associations at 24 months, primarily internalizing symptoms, which persisted through 36 months. Future work will replicate findings within a larger study as well as explore mediators and modifiers of these associations.