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Exposure to adverse life events during pregnancy has been linked to increased risk of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) in offspring. Nevertheless, much of the previous work inferred maternal stress from severe life events rather than directly assessing maternal reports of stress. The present study aimed to examine maternal reports of stress during pregnancy and risk for offspring SSD. Participants were 95 SSD cases and 206 controls who were offspring from a large birth cohort study that followed pregnant women from 1959–1966. During pregnancy interviews, women were asked if anything worrisome had occurred recently. Interviews were qualitatively coded for stress-related themes, including reports of daily life stress, by two independent raters. None of the maternal psychosocial stress themes were significantly associated with increased odds of offspring SSD in analyses of the full sample. However, results indicated a significant daily life stress by infant sex interaction. Maternal daily life stress during pregnancy was associated with significantly increased odds of SSD among male offspring. Findings suggest sex-specific fetal sensitivity to maternal reported daily life stress during pregnancy on risk for SSD, with males appearing to be more vulnerable to the influences of maternal stress during pregnancy.

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Maternal infection during pregnancy has been linked to increased risk of offspring depression. Additionally, maternal stress during pregnancy has been consistently linked with adverse offspring outcomes associated with depression. Relatedly, stress has been associated with increased risk of infection; however no study has investigated stress-infection interactions during pregnancy and risk for offspring depression. Participants were drawn from the Child Health and Development Study (CHDS), a prospective, longitudinal study that enrolled pregnant women from 1959-1966. Maternal health and birth outcome information were collected, as well as open-ended interviews about worrisome events during pregnancy. The present study included participants from a subsample of women whose offspring (n = 1,711) completed self-reports of depressive symptoms during adolescence. Results indicated that maternal infection during only the second trimester was associated with higher scores on adolescent offspring depressive symptoms, while controlling for maternal education at birth, adolescent age, and maternal depressive symptoms at adolescence. Maternal experiences of daily stress during pregnancy moderated this association, such that mothers diagnosed with second trimester infection and who experienced daily stress had offspring with significantly higher depression scores than mothers of adolescents diagnosed with an infection alone. Findings have potential implications for prevention and intervention strategies.

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