Examining the link between women's exposure to stressful life events prior to conception and infant and toddler health: the role of birth weight.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The life course perspective suggests a pathway may exist among maternal exposure to stressful life events prior to conception (PSLEs), infant birth weight and subsequent offspring health, whereby PSLEs are part of a 'chains-of-risk' that set children on a certain health pathway. No prior study has examined the link between PSLEs and offspring health in a nationally representative sample of US mothers and their children. We used longitudinal, nationally representative data to evaluate the relation between maternal exposure to PSLEs and subsequent measures of infant and toddler health, taking both maternal and obstetric characteristics into account.

Methods

We examined 6900 mother-child dyads participating in 2 waves of the nationally representative Early Childhood

SUBMITTER: Cheng ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4752871 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature