Table 2.

Examples of In Utero Stress Exposure Effects: Temperament-related Outcomes: Human and Animal Studies. Sample characteristics are provided in a different manner for human and animal studies, due to differences in design and presentation format. For human correlational studies, the overall number of participants (N) is presented, whereas the number of participants per condition (n) is indicated for animal experimental investigations. Additional information concerning numbers of male vs. female participants is provided, when both sexes were included/specified. Developmental timing of exposure indicators vary across studies. For humans, the timing is generally provided in terms of the number of gestational weeks, whereas in animals these indicators are typically more specific, counting embryonic days. The (↑) denotes increases in temperament-related behaviors/displays and/or stress exposure (↓) denotes decreases in temperament-related behaviors/displays and/or stress.

Exposure	Significant Developmental/ Behavioral Outcome	Sample Characteristics	Developmental Timing of Exposure	Reference
(A) Human Studies
Maternal Stress
911	↓Basal cortisol concentrations, especially with 3d trimester exposure	N=38 (male & female) Measured at 12 months	Entire pregnancy: Measured postpartum	Yehuda et al. (2005)
Hurricane Katrina	↑Temperamental difficulty with ↑perinatal PTSD	N=288 (male and female) Measured at 2 and 12 months	Entire pregnancy: Measured at delivery	Tees et al. (2009)
Iowa Floods	↑Cortisol reactivity/separation with ↑maternal prenatal stress	N=94 (48 female) Measure at 29–34 months	Entire pregnancy: Measured within 3 months of delivery	Ping et al. (2015)
Anxiety, Depression	↑Attenuation (flattening) of diurnal cortisol profile with ↑ anxiety at 12–22 weeks	N=58 (29 female) Measured at 14–15 years	Entire pregnancy: Measured at 12–22, 23–32, & 32–40 weeks	van den Bergh et al. (2008)
Emotional Stress, General psychopathology	↓Fearful reactivity to novelty with ↑ emotional stress across pregnancy	N=102 (45 female) Measured at 4 months	Entire pregnancy: Measured at 2 weeks postpartum	Möhler et al. (2006)
Anxiety	↓Regulatory capacity/orienting	N=90 (44 female) Measured at 10 months	Early-mid pregnancy: Measured at 20 weeks	van den Heuvel et al. (2016)
Stress, Anxiety Depression, HPA-axis response	↑Negative emotionality, with ↑ 3d trimester maternal cortisol ↑Negative emotionality with ↑ prenatal anxiety/depression scores across pregnancy	N=247 (male and female) Measured at 2 months	Entire pregnancy: Measured at 18–20, 24–26, and 30–32 weeks	Davis et al. (2007)
Stress, Anxiety, Depression	↑Temperamental difficulty with prenatal depression, not anxiety	N=107 (male & female) Measured at 3 months	Entire pregnancy: Measured at 28–36 weeks, postpartum	Vedova et al. (2006)
Stress, Anxiety Depression, HPA-axis response	↑Cortisol reactivity/painful event with ↑ maternal cortisol late 2nd/3d trimester ↓ Behavioral Recovery with ↑ maternal cortisol early 2nd trimester, ↑stress across pregnancy	N=116 (55 female) Measured at 24 hours after birth	Entire pregnancy: Measures at 15, 19, 25, 31, and 36 weeks	Davis et al. (2011)
Stress, Anxiety, Depression	↑Negative emotionality and fear ↓Falling reactivity/recover from distress	N=282 (126 female) Measured at 6 months	Entire pregnancy: Measured at 14, 24, and 34 weeks	Nolve et al. (2016)
Trauma (lifetime/prenatal), PTSD, depression	↓Behavioral Recovery/social stressor with ↑maternal traumatization (controlling for symptoms)	N=23 (12 females) Measured at 6 months	Majority of pregnancy and the postnatal period: Measured at 6 months	Bosquet Enlow et al. (2009)

Exposure	Significant Developmental/ Behavioral Outcome	Sample Characteristics	Developmental Timing of Exposure	Reference
(B) Animal Studies
Stress
Foot shock	↑ Anxiety-like behavior	n=11–28 mice/condition (5–14 females) Measured at PND9	Mid-gestation: E12	Golub et al. (2016)
Forced swim & observing forced swim	↑Anxiety-like behavior (females)	n=10 rats/condition (5 females) PND40	Mid/late gestation: E6–16	Nazeri et al. (2015)
Observing foot shock	↑Anxiety/depression-like behavior ↑Basal corticosterone	n=6 rats/condition (males only) Measured at PND60, 120	Mid/late gestation: E13–20	Abe et al. (2007)
Dexamethasone administration	↑Corticosterone reactivity	n=6–13 monkeys/condition Measured at 12–14 months	Mid/late-gestation: 22 weeks-birth	deVries et al. (2007)

Abbreviations include (E) - Embryonic day, and (PND) - Postnatal day; (PTSD) - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.