Perinatal depressive symptoms and child temperament at two years: The moderating role of child sleep duration.

Background: Perinatal depression has been linked to higher negative affectivity (NA) in children, though the strength of this association is variable. Infant sleep, a known protective factor, may moderate this relationship though this has not been tested.

Objective: To examine whether within-person changes in depressive symptoms across pregnancy and postpartum were linked to child NA, and whether infant sleep duration moderated these effects.

Sex-specific relationships between gray matter volume and executive function in young children with and without prenatal alcohol exposure.

Sex differences in brain volume are well established across ages however, limited research has investigated if sex differences in brain structure associate with early cognitive outcomes. Moreover, associations among sex, brain structure, and cognition in individuals with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE), the most common known cause of developmental delay in North America, are unclear. Here, we investigated associations between executive function (measured by the BRIEF or BRIEF-P Global Executive Composite (GEC) and the Statue subtest of the NEPSY-II) and volumes of 36 gray matter regions in a longitudinal MRI sample of 169 young children (N=37; 534 total scans) aged 2-8 years.

The association between prenatal maternal anxiety, infant brain volumes, and temperament during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prenatal maternal stress (PNMS), anxiety, and depression are associated with altered trajectories of infant socio-emotional and brain development, including the amygdala and prefrontal cortex (PFC). During the COVID-19 pandemic, prenatal anxiety and depression was significantly elevated, yet the impact on infant neurodevelopment remains uncertain. The objective of this study was to determine whether PNMS and mental health during the pandemic was associated with infant amygdala and PFC volumes as well as temperament.

Maternal exposure to trace elements and perfluoroalkyl acids and their associations with alterations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.

Environmental exposures to trace elements and perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) could alter hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function during pregnancy. Concentrations of trace elements measured in maternal red blood cells and PFAAs measured in maternal plasma, as well as maternal salivary cortisol were quantified from second trimester samples in 243 women from the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) cohort. Regression analyses examine associations between trace elements and PFAAs, and cortisol awakening response (CAR), daytime cortisol and diurnal cortisol slope.

Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM): study protocol for a hybrid implementation-effectiveness trial of the BEAM app-based program for parents with clinical mental health problems.

Background: Children are highly sensitive to adversity during their first five years of life, with exposure to chronic parental mental illness (MI) consistently linked to socio-emotional impairments and mental health problems in children. Children born during the COVID-19 pandemic were exposed to unprecedented levels of parental distress, with parental MI reported at three times the pre-pandemic rates. This situation underscored a pressing need for scalable solutions to foster positive mental health and developmental outcomes for a generation of children.

Psychological Distress in Childbearing Persons During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multi-Trajectory Study of Anger, Anxiety, and Depression.

Psychological distress can manifest as depression, anxiety, and anger in the perinatal period. These conditions are often comorbid yet studied in isolation. A full understanding of perinatal psychopathology requires the spectrum of common psychological distress to be studied concurrently to better understand interconnected symptoms.

Using machine learning to investigate the influence of the prenatal chemical exposome on neurodevelopment of young children.

Research investigating the prenatal chemical exposome and child neurodevelopment has typically focused on a limited number of chemical exposures and controlled for sociodemographic factors and maternal mental health. Emerging machine learning approaches may facilitate more comprehensive examinations of the contributions of chemical exposures, sociodemographic factors, and maternal mental health to child neurodevelopment. A machine learning pipeline that utilized feature selection and ranking was applied to investigate which common prenatal chemical exposures and sociodemographic factors best predict neurodevelopmental outcomes in young children.

Sex-specific white matter alterations in children exposed to high pregestational BMI.

Objective: This study investigated whether exposure to high pregestational BMI (≥ 25 kg/m) is associated with alterations in white matter microstructure in early childhood, explored sex-specific effects, and examined associations with cognitive performance.

Methods: A total of 90 children from the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) cohort underwent diffusion tensor imaging between ages 2 and 7 years. Data were processed using ExploreDTI to obtain mean fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD).

Impact of age-related changes in buccal epithelial cells on pediatric epigenetic biomarker research.

Cheek swabs, heterogeneous samples consisting primarily of buccal epithelial cells, are widely used in pediatric DNA methylation studies and biomarker creation. However, the decrease in buccal proportion with age in adults remains unexamined in childhood. We analyzed cheek swabs from 4626 typically developing children 2-months to 20-years-old.

Evaluation of the Association Between Prenatal Cannabis Use and Risk of Developmental Delay.

Objective: Conflicting results have arisen regarding the association between prenatal cannabis exposure and risk of parent-reported developmental delay in infancy. In certain instances, this literature has become outdated or failed to adjust for confounding variables. The current study aimed to determine if prenatal cannabis exposure was associated with a greater likelihood of risk of parent-reported developmental delay at 12 months of age in a contemporary cohort, while adjusting for common confounding variables.

Neurodevelopment in the First 2 Years of Life Following Prenatal Exposure to Maternal SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

Importance: The effects of prenatal exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection on child development throughout the first 2 years of life are unknown.

Objective: To evaluate whether prenatal exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with child neurodevelopmental outcomes during the first 2 years of life.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study used data from the longitudinal, population-based pan-Canadian Pregnancy During the COVID-19 Pandemic cohort, which recruited participants from April 2020 to July 2022.

Sleeping for Two: a randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia in pregnancy.

Study Objectives: Insomnia and sleep problems are common in pregnancy and have potentially negative impacts on both parental and infant health. This study examined the Sleeping for Two adaptation of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) in pregnancy.

Methods: A parallel (1:1) randomized controlled trial evaluated CBT-I ( = 32) compared to a treatment as usual waitlist ( = 32) among pregnant individuals from Alberta, Canada experiencing insomnia.

Language learning in the context of a global pandemic: proximal and distal factors matter.

Background: Public health measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally altered the socioecological context in which children were developing.

Methods: Using Bronfenbrenner's socioecological theory, we investigate language acquisition among 2-year-old children (n = 4037) born during the pandemic. We focus on "late talkers", defined as children below the 10th percentile on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories-III.

Sex-Specific Associations between Prenatal Exposure to Bisphenols and Phthalates and Infant Epigenetic Age Acceleration.

We examined whether prenatal exposure to two classes of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) was associated with infant epigenetic age acceleration (EAA), a DNA methylation biomarker of aging. Participants included 224 maternal-infant pairs from a Canadian pregnancy cohort study. Two bisphenols and 12 phthalate metabolites were measured in maternal second trimester urines.

Sleeping for two: A randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBTI) delivered in pregnancy and secondary impacts on symptoms of postpartum depression.

Background: Insomnia in pregnancy is common and highly comorbid with depression.

Objective: To investigate if: 1) depressive symptoms decrease after cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBTI) delivered in pregnancy, and 2) changes in insomnia symptoms represent a mechanism linking CBT-I treatment and reduced symptoms of postpartum depression.

Methods: A two-arm, single-blind, parallel groups randomized controlled trial (RCT) design was used to evaluate the impact of a 5-week CBT-I intervention adapted for pregnant people with insomnia (N = 62).

Early Life Surgency, but not Effortful Control or Negative Affectivity, Is a Mediating Variable Between Maternal Pre-Pregnancy Body Mass Index and Childhood Obesity Risk.

Maternal gestational obesity is related to risk of obesity in the child. This risk may be in part mediated by altered child temperament, which can affect mother-child interactions, including feeding and soothing behaviors that affect obesity risk. Our objective was to examine the association between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and child zBMI and determine if child temperament, specifically positive Affectivity/Surgency, mediates this association.

Maternal pre-pregnancy diet and prenatal depression: the mediating role of pre-pregnancy weight status and prenatal inflammation.

Depression is a common prenatal psychological complication. We aimed to investigate if maternal pre-pregnancy diet can impact prenatal depressive symptoms and the mediating role of pre-pregnancy BMI and inflammation. We used data ( 1141) from the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition cohort study.

Intrapartum antibiotic use is associated with higher child body mass index (BMI) z-score at 4 years of age.

Early life antibiotic exposure may increase obesity risk. We investigated if prenatal, intrapartum, or childhood antibiotic use is associated with child zBMI score at 4 yrs of age. We included data from the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) study, a prospective cohort study, on maternal and child antibiotic exposure and clinic measures of height and weight at age 4 (n = 408).

Cluster-specific associations between the gut microbiota and behavioral outcomes in preschool-aged children.

Background: The gut microbiota is recognized as a regulator of brain development and behavioral outcomes during childhood. Nonetheless, associations between the gut microbiota and behavior are often inconsistent among studies in humans, perhaps because many host-microbe relationships vary widely between individuals. This study aims to stratify children based on their gut microbiota composition (i.

Sex-Specific Associations between Prenatal Exposure to Di(2-ethylhexyl) Phthalate, Epigenetic Age Acceleration, and Susceptibility to Early Childhood Upper Respiratory Infections.

Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is a common plasticizer that can affect immune system development and susceptibility to infection. Aging processes (measured as epigenetic age acceleration (EAA)) may mediate the immune-related effects of prenatal exposure to DEHP. This study's objective was to examine associations between prenatal DEHP exposure, EAA at three months of age, and the number of upper respiratory infections (URIs) from 12 to 18 months of age using a sample of 69 maternal-child pairs from a Canadian pregnancy cohort.

Maternal pre-pregnancy weight status and gestational weight gain in association with child behavior: The mediating role of prenatal systemic inflammation.

Background And Aims: Maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and excessive gestational weight gain (EGWG) may predispose children to behavioral problems through increased prenatal inflammation. We investigated the association between maternal body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG), and child behavioral problems (primary aim), and the mediating role of prenatal inflammation (secondary aim).

Methods: We used self-reported pre-pregnancy BMI and estimated-GWG data (N = 1137) from a longitudinal cohort study.

Maternal Pre-Pregnancy BMI and Gestational Weight Gain Are Associated with Preschool Children's Neuropsychological Outcomes in the APrON Cohort.

This study examined the associations between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and gestational weight gain (GWG) and children's neuropsychological outcomes at 3 to 5 years of age. A total of 379 women and their children from the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) study participated. Covariate-adjusted robust regressions examined associations between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, GWG class, interaction terms, and child outcomes.

Maternal Iron and Vitamin D Status during the Second Trimester Is Associated with Third Trimester Depression Symptoms among Pregnant Participants in the APrON Cohort.

Background: The maternal status of multiple micronutrients during pregnancy and postpartum and their potential associations with maternal health outcomes are largely undescribed.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine associations between maternal iron and vitamin D status, individually and in combination, on depression symptoms in pregnant individuals.

Methods: The Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition cohort study included pregnant participants and their children from Calgary and Edmonton, Canada.