Fetal programming of infant temperament: An examination of prenatal maternal stress during the COVID‐19 pandemic

Pregnant women were exposed to multiple sources of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, raising concerns about the potential fetal programming effects of child development. A few studies show that prenatal maternal stress during the pandemic is associated with greater negative affectivity and more extraversion in infants. However, studies investigating this association are very few and need to be replicated. This study aims to prospectively investigate the association between prenatal maternal stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and infant temperament, while assessing the relative contribution of postnatal maternal stress. A total of 269 low-risk, French-speaking women from the province of Quebec, Canada, completed questionnaires during pregnancy to report on their prenatal maternal stress (general and pandemic-related). When their child was 6 months old, the mothers completed a second questionnaire to collect information on postnatal stress and infant temperament. The results show that prenatal maternal stress in the context of the pandemic significantly predicted infants' negative affectivity and orienting/regulation factors, even after controlling for postnatal stress. The results support the fetal programming hypothesis, while highlighting the additional contribution of maternal stress during the child's first months of life.