Maternal Stress and Prenatal COVID Status Impact Infant Attention Span

On September 27, 2023, scientists published the results of a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a subset of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that evaluated the impacts of maternal stress and prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection on infant development, including neurodevelopmental outcomes, cognition, and socioemotional functioning.

Researchers enrolled 167 pregnant individuals and their infants between March 2020 and January 2023 from the New York University Langone Health medical records.

Researchers asked patients to report their COVID-19 infection status during pregnancy using the COVID-19 and Perinatal Experiences (COPE) Impact Survey and the Novel Coronavirus Illness Patient Report Survey. Among the 167 participants, 50 of the pregnant individuals reported having COVID-19 during their pregnancy.

Beyond COVID-19 status, the researchers also assessed maternal prenatal psychosocial stress using the Depression, Anxiety, and Somatic Subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory and a modified version of the PCL-5 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

At six months, the researchers evaluated looking time and orienting patterns using videos and regulatory capacity using the revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-VSF). In addition, the researchers assessed socioemotional outcomes and neurodevelopmental risk at one year using the Brief Infant–Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA).

According to the researchers, prenatal stress and COVID-19 infection did not impact infant outcomes independently. However, individuals with COVID-19 and higher prenatal stress were more likely to have infants with poorer attention at six months. Infants already experiencing attention delays at six months were more likely to have delayed socioemotional functioning and cognition at one year.

“This study found that elevated maternal psychosocial stress and COVID-19 infection during pregnancy jointly predicted lower infant attention scores at six months, a known marker of risk for neurodevelopmental disorder. In turn, infant attention predicted socioemotional function and risk for neurodevelopmental disorder at 12 months. These data suggest that maternal psychosocial stress may modulate the effects of gestational infection on neurodevelopment and highlight malleable targets for intervention,” concluded researchers in the study.