Maternal antenatal anxiety and children's behavioural/emotional problems at 4 years

Animal experiments suggest that maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy have long-term effects on the behaviour of the offspring.

To test the hypothesis that antenatal maternal anxiety predicts behavioural problems at age 4 years. METHOD: Data were collected on multiple antenatal and postnatal assessments of maternal anxiety and depression, antenatal and obstetric risks, psychosocial risks and children's behavioural/emotional problems (n=7448).