Maternal childhood trauma and perinatal distress are related to infants' focused attention from 6 to 18 months.

ABSTRACT: Maternal distress is repeatedly reported to have negative impacts on the cognitive development in children and is linked to neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder). However, studies examining the associations between maternal distress and the development of attention in infancy are few. This study investigated the longitudinal relationships between maternal distress (depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and exposure to childhood trauma) and the development of focused attention in infancy in 118 mother-infant dyads. We found that maternal exposure to non-interpersonal traumatic events in childhood was associated with the less focused attention of the infants to audio-visual stimuli at 6, 10, and 18 months. In addition, expo

SUBMITTER: Tu HF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8683435 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature