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Childhood Anxiety: Prenatal Maternal Stress and Parenting in the QF2011 Cohort

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Abstract

In this study we examine whether specific ‘anxiety-maintaining’ parenting behaviors (i.e., overinvolvement and/or negativity) exacerbate the effects of disaster-related prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) on school-age anxiety symptoms. Women (N = 230), pregnant at the time of the 2011 Queensland Floods, reported on their experience of flood-related PNMS (objective hardship, cognitive appraisal, subjective distress). At 4-years, mother–child dyads were coded for maternal overinvolvement and negativity during a challenging task; at 6-years mothers reported on their children’s anxiety symptoms and their own mood, N = 83. Results showed no associations between PNMS and 6-year anxiety, nor did parenting moderate these effects. Poorer maternal concurrent mood was associated with greater anxiety symptoms at 6 years (β = 0.52). Findings suggest maternal concurrent mood, but not exposure to disaster-related PNMS nor ‘anxiety-maintaining’ parenting behaviors at preschool age, is related to school-age anxiety symptoms.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP-1150067). Mater Research and Mater Group.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Mia A. McLean, Vanessa E. Cobham, Gabrielle Simcock, Belinda Lequertier & Sue Kildea

  2. School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Mia A. McLean, Vanessa E. Cobham, Gabrielle Simcock & Belinda Lequertier

  3. Thompson Institute, University of Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia

    Gabrielle Simcock

  4. Molly Wardaguga Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Charles Darwin University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Sue Kildea

  5. Schizophrenia and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, 6875 LaSalle Blvd., Verdun, QC, H4H 1R3, Canada

    Suzanne King

  6. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Suzanne King

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  1. Mia A. McLean
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  2. Vanessa E. Cobham
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  5. Sue Kildea
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  6. Suzanne King
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Correspondence to Suzanne King.

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McLean, M.A., Cobham, V.E., Simcock, G. et al. Childhood Anxiety: Prenatal Maternal Stress and Parenting in the QF2011 Cohort. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 52, 389–398 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-020-01024-2

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