In conducting my research on developmental studies, I had the chance to review many academic journals with many different studies. I chose to read, “The Role of Prenatal Maternal Stress in Child Development,” by Janet A.DiPietro in the, Current Directions in Psychological Science journal. The title of the study itself does identify the independent and dependent variable. The independent variable is the effect of stress, and the dependent variable is the child’s development. In reading the introduction, I learned that throughout history people have thought that the emotions and experiences of a pregnant woman impinge on her developing fetus. (DiPietro, 2004) I also learned that there are no direct neural connections between the mother and fetus. (DiPietro, 2004) The journal went on to describe the physiological processes involved in mother to fetus bio-chemical and hormonal functions. The main studies used in determining theoretical explanations throughout history, have been in animal studies.
According to DiPietro (2004), “the most compelling evidence between maternal physiological functioning and later development in offspring is found in animal studies.” (p. 1).
The hypothesis of this study suggests that maternal stressors are more far-reaching on child behavior than previously suspected. (DiPietro, 2004).
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The main way that this hypothesis has been studied is by utilizing animal research. In a series of studies done with rhesus monkeys, when the mothers were exposed to loud noises throughout pregnancy, the offspring showed delayed motor development and reduced attention. (DiPietro, 2004) It does seem that most of the studies conducted on animals have reported negative consequences. Although reports of either no effects or beneficial ones make it clear that much is left to be learned about the specific characteristics of stressors that either accelerate or retard development. (DiPietro, 2004) The subjects used in the methods section were humans.
Although, according to the article, this is difficult to study in the human because of the physiological differences during the pregnancies of the different species, and the fact that researchers are unable to control events that transpire after birth in humans. (DiPietro, 2004) Therefore, there are no graphs, charts or statistical measures seen in this article. There were several methods used to analyze the data in this article. One was the survey. Surveys were done with mothers who had witnessed a catastrophic even such as the World Trade Center disaster, or an earthquake. Although the study was able to show that the mother was indeed stressed during pregnancy, there was no study conducted on the outcome of the child. (DiPietro, 2004) Another method had mothers report about their stress incurred during pregnancy, and then an observer and not a parent rated the infant’s behavior. The article suggests that even the resulting information in this study may be skewed, because the studies relied on the Mother’s reports of their children’s problems.
It finally became apparent through this study that the only way for the researchers to examine the effects of stressors on the fetus was to subject women to a non-invasive stressor and then measure fetal response. (DiPietro, 2004) They gave these women a standardized test called the, Stroop Color-Word Test. (DiPietro, 2004) The test caused the women to feel cognitively challenged, therefore inducing increased physiological responses in mother, but interestingly, not in the fetus. Fetal motor activity was actually suppressed, according to the study. (DiPietro, 2004) The final results of the study showed that higher maternal anxiety midway through pregnancy were strongly associated with better motor and mental development scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. (DiPietro, 2004) Interestingly, the research conducted on humans, showed that the effects on the developing child are opposite of the effects on animals.
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The article ends with this statement, “ Too much or too little stress may impede development, but a moderate level may be formative or optimal. It seems that there is really too little research on this area of study to come to a conclusion. I found this study to be very interesting and relevant to today’s issues within society, and especially the question of nature versus nurture. It makes me think about children who are displaying such violent behaviors such as shooting their classmates and parents.
It makes me ask the question of what was going on in the mother’s environment during pregnancy? Did she have an easy, stress free, supported pregnancy, or was there fighting and unrest during the pregnancy? Could factors such as these affect the child and develop into what we label as sociopathic? It would be interesting to conduct a study of pregnant women in a prison setting versus pregnant women in an ideal pregnancy situation, and to study the offspring from birth to five years old. Would the affects of the pregnant woman in prison create certain developmental issues in the children? Does it even matter? These questions and many more within the psychology realm are what make this a fascinating discipline to study. It truly is the nature of ourselves that we get to ask questions about, and find the deeper, hidden meanings.
References
DiPietro, J. A. (2004, April).
The role of prenatal maternal stress in child development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13(2), 71-74. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20182913
