Maternal stress during pregnancy and early childhood development

Matias Berthelon, Diana Kruger and Rafael Sanchez

Economics & Human Biology, 2021, vol. 43, issue C

Abstract: We estimate the impact of prenatal stress on early childhood development outcomes known as “middle years” or intermediate outcomes, which has not been studied previously. Using a unique measure of actual maternal stress induced by a large earthquake, we find that relative to children that were not exposed, in utero maternal stress reduces children’s cognitive skills and socio-emotional problems by age 3, and that the effects are heterogeneous. The negative impacts on cognitive skills occur during the first trimester of pregnancy and are found among both low and high-income children, and boys and girls. The harmful effects on socio-emotional behaviors occur when stress is experienced in the last trimester of pregnancy.

Keywords: In utero stress; Early childhood; Child development; Maternal stress; Maternal mental health; Earthquake; Chile (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I19 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Maternal Stress during Pregnancy and Early Childhood Development (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:43:y:2021:i:c:s1570677x2100071x

DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101047

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