Guide to Navigating this Research Archive
Here you will find research articles published by IDHP researchers that are related to our primary scientific foci: the interconnected mental health of children and their caregivers, the intergenerational impact of stressful experiences on mental and physical health, and interventions and other buffers that support family wellness.
In the right sidebar, you can search this archive by research topic, as well as by research study (you can read about each study on the Current Projects page). Each archive entry has a simple summary, the full scientific abstract, and a link to the full article. Most of the articles in this research archive are available open access (i.e., you can access it without a subscription). If you are trying to access an article and aren't able to see the full version, please email us at [email protected], and we would be happy to assist.
March 14, 2024
Child mental & behavioral health
Child physical health
Interconnected maternal-child health
Intervention effects
Protective factors
Stress during pregnancy
This article summarizes the science of how stress during pregnancy affects child mental and physical health. It discusses lessons learned from conducting this work and offers suggestions for future research poised to further the field in important areas, including: leveraging pregnancy interventions, identifying resilience promotion factors, and enhancing policy relevance.
October 9, 2023
Biomarkers
Caregiving behaviors
Child mental & behavioral health
MAMAS/SEED Study
Protective factors
SEED Study
Stress during pregnancy
This study found that average or higher levels of sensitive parenting behaviors buffered the effects of prenatal stress exposures on child cardiometabolic functioning and temperament, at 6 months of age. Findings also showed that sensitive parenting behaviors were related with lower cardiometabolic reactivity and greater recovery when infants were exposed to stress. Together, these results suggest that parental sensitivity (and interventions that promote it) may shape healthy child development and stress resilience.
July 5, 2023
CANDLE Study
Child physical health
Childhood adversity
Stress during pregnancy
This study investigated how women's exposure to different types of violence during childhood and pregnancy can affect their children's body mass index (BMI) over time. Findings showed that children whose mothers experienced more intimate partner violence during pregnancy, or lived in higher crime neighborhoods, were more likely to have a high-rising trajectory of BMI from birth to 8 years old. The results emphasize the intergenerational transmission of social adversity and its impact on children's physical health.
February 3, 2023
Child mental & behavioral health
Childhood adversity
ECHO PATHWAYS Study
Stress during pregnancy
This study looked at how a mother's exposure to stressful events in childhood and during pregnancy can affect her child's mental health. The researchers studied over 1,900 mother-child pairs and found that mothers who had experienced more childhood trauma and pregnancy stress had children with more mental health problems. The study highlights the importance of preventing and treating childhood trauma and stress during pregnancy to improve the well-being of both mothers and their children.
December 3, 2022
Child mental & behavioral health
Childhood adversity
ECHO PATHWAYS Study
Stress during pregnancy
This study explored how women's experiences of childhood adversity and stressful events during pregnancy can impact their children's anxiety and depression symptoms. Researchers found that stress exposures during pregnancy had a positive association with children's anxiety and depression symptoms, while no significant link was observed with maternal childhood traumatic events. This suggests that policies and programs aimed at preventing childhood internalizing symptoms should consider prenatal origins and the potential impact of pregnancy stress prevention and intervention on the next generation.
November 28, 2022
Intervention effects
MAMAS/SEED Study
Maternal mental health
Stress during pregnancy
Depression presents a significant public health challenge, particularly for women both during and after pregnancy. This study investigated the long-term effects of a prenatal mindfulness intervention for Bay Area women from lower-income backgrounds. The research found that this intervention not only reduced depressive symptoms in the short term but also had lasting benefits, extending up to eight years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings emphasize the importance of investing in and supporting mental health interventions during pregnancy to support women and promote their sustained well-being.
October 21, 2022
Child mental & behavioral health
Child physical health
ECHO PATHWAYS Study
Stress during pregnancy
This paper profiles the ECHO-PATHWAYS cohort, which harmonizes data from three pregnancy studies in various regions of the U.S. with the goal of studying how chemical and psychosocial stress exposures impact child neurodevelopment and airway health.
April 29, 2022
Biomarkers
ECHO-wide Study
Stress during pregnancy
This study looked at how lower socioeconomic status and stress affect pregnancy outcomes. The researchers studied biological, behavioral, and social factors that might contribute to oxidative stress, which is an important yet understudied way that these factors can harm a pregnancy. The results showed that pregnant people who smoked or had less than a high school education had higher levels of oxidative stress biomarkers, which may contribute to negative health outcomes for both the pregnancy and the child.
April 25, 2022
CANDLE Study
Caregiving behaviors
Child mental & behavioral health
Protective factors
Stress during pregnancy
This study looked at the effects of stress and violence experienced by pregnant women on their children's mental health. The researchers found that women's exposure to stress and violence during pregnancy was linked to problems with child mental health and executive functioning. Importantly, the study also found that high-quality parenting behaviors (higher sensitivity, supportiveness, scaffolding) could protect against these negative effects. The results suggest that supporting women's mental health during pregnancy and supporting their capacity for sensitive parenting could improve the wellbeing of both mothers and their children.
March 8, 2022
Child mental & behavioral health
Stress during pregnancy
TIDES Study
This study looked at how maternal stress during pregnancy can affect children's mental health. The researchers found that maternal experiences of objectively stressful events as well as perceived stress were linked to children's mental health, with more stress predicting more mental health problems and worse adaptability. These findings highlight the importance of understanding different types of stress and suggests that family-focused interventions before and after birth could help prevent mental health problems in children.