Antenatal maternal anxiety is associated with altered cognitive control in five-year-old children (abstract)

ANTENATAL MATERNAL ANXIETY IS ASSOCIATED WITH ALTERED COGNITIVE CONTROL IN FIVE-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN E. M. Loomans,12 O. van der Stelt,1 M. van Eijsden,2 R. J. B. J. Gemke,3 T. Vrijkotte,4 and B. R. H. M. Van den Bergh1 1Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, the Netherlands 2Department of Epidemiology, Documentation and Health Promotion, Public Health Service, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 3Department of Paediatrics, EMGO institute, Institute of Cardiovascular Research VU, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 4Department of Social Medicine, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands e.m.loomans@uvt.nl The current study prospectively examined the relation between maternal anxiety during pregnancy and children’s cognitive functioning at age five. Participants (N¼922) were mothers and their children participating in the Amsterdam Born Children and their Development study. Antenatal maternal anxiety wasmeasured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) around the 16th week of pregnancy. Children’s neurocognitive functioning was examined using two reaction time (RT) tasks; one simple and one complex, differing in the amount of cognitive load (low vs. high). Regression analyses were performed in thewhole sample (STAI score,M¼36.0, SD¼9.5) and in the highly anxious subsample (STAI score >90th percentile, M¼54.7, SD¼5.7) controlling for: gender, birth weight corrected for gestational age, parity,maternal education, maternal smoking, maternal alcohol consumption and postnatal anxiety. In the whole sample antenatal anxiety was positively related to children’s intra-individual variability in RT in the simple task. Subsample analyses showed that high levels of antenatal anxiety were positively associated with mean RT and intra-individual variability in RT in the complex task.Asignificant interaction was found between anxiety and the child’s gender on the intra-individual variability in RT in both tasks. All pvalues <.05. Our study provided evidence that high levels of maternal anxiety during pregnancy specifically affect offsprings performance on tasks high in cognitive load. In boys, high levels of antenatal anxiety were also related to intra-individual variability in RT in conditions low in cognitive load. [Funding: Tilburg University, the Netherlands]