Pregnancy-Specific Anxiety and Maternal Social Support: Relationships with Offspring Attention and Executive Function Through Epigenetic Age

Lowe, Catherine T.

Pregnancy-Specific Anxiety and Maternal Social Support: Relationships with Offspring Attention and Executive Function Through Epigenetic Age

dc.contributor.advisor	Climie, Emma Alison
dc.contributor.advisor	Ross, Kharah MacKenzie
dc.contributor.author	Lowe, Catherine T.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Climie, Emma A.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Ross, Kharah MacKenzie
dc.contributor.committeemember	Letourneau, Nicole Lyn
dc.contributor.committeemember	Murias, Kara Rochele
dc.date	2023-11
dc.date.accessioned	2023-08-18T21:19:43Z
dc.date.available	2023-08-18T21:19:43Z
dc.date.issued	2023-08
dc.description.abstract	Prenatal exposure to maternal distress, such as pregnancy-specific anxiety, is associated with diminished child attention and executive functioning, commonly experienced with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Maternal social support is related to better child outcomes. In utero experiences can affect genetic expression by fine-tuning child phenotypes, potentially through child epigenetic age differences relative to chronological age through DNA methylation (DNAm), but whether this relates to child attention or executive function or mediates protective factors such as social support is unknown. Pregnant women (n = 96) reported pregnancy-specific anxiety and social support, and their 3-month-old infant buccal epithelial and buffy coat cell tissue samples were collected and assayed for DNAm, indicating epigenetic age differences identified through the Horvath Pan-Tissue clock. Children’s executive function and attention were assessed using the Behavior Assessment System for Children (2nd Ed) at 5 years of age. Multiple regression and structural equation mediation path analysis examined associations and indirect pathways between pregnancy-specific anxiety and social support on child attention and executive functioning through epigenetic age difference. Neither pregnancy-specific anxiety nor social support showed direct or indirect associations with children’s attention. However, pregnancy-specific anxiety and social support independently indirectly predicted better child executive functioning, mediated through increased, or biologically older, epigenetic age differences. Small to moderate amounts of pregnancy-specific anxiety is a normative and non-pathological experience, differentiated from maternal distress broadly. Both pregnancy-specific anxiety and social support are related to child DNAm, suggesting a possible impact on phenotype expression with implications for future research directions and potential targeted psychosocial interventions to preserve child executive functioning.
dc.identifier.citation	Lowe, C. T. (2023). Pregnancy-specific anxiety and maternal social support: relationships with offspring attention and executive function through epigenetic age (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1880/116870
dc.identifier.uri	https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/41712
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	epigenetics
dc.subject	maternal health
dc.subject	attention
dc.subject	executive function
dc.subject	pregnancy-specific anxiety
dc.subject	social support
dc.subject	epigenetic age
dc.subject.classification	Education--Health
dc.subject.classification	Educational Psychology
dc.subject.classification	Genetics
dc.subject.classification	Mental Health
dc.subject.classification	Education--Early Childhood
dc.title	Pregnancy-Specific Anxiety and Maternal Social Support: Relationships with Offspring Attention and Executive Function Through Epigenetic Age
dc.type	master thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Education Graduate Program – Educational Psychology
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Master of Science (MSc)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I do not require a thesis withhold – my thesis will have open access and can be viewed and downloaded publicly as soon as possible.