Associations between Prenatal Stress, Parenting Sensitivity, and Childhood Executive Function

Experiences during the prenatal period and early childhood, including biological factors and environmental influences, have been shown in the literature to play a foundational role in shaping children’s executive function development. Prenatal stress and parenting quality are both factors known to influence the development of executive function in early childhood, yet few studies have examined how these factors interact. The present study investigated whether parenting sensitivity at 6 months moderates the association between prenatal stress, assessed via maternal hair cortisol and perceived stress, and children’s executive function at five years of age. The current study drew data from the longitudinal Brain and Early Experience (BEE) Study and included a sample size of 92 mother-child dyad pairs. Prenatal stress was measured through maternal hair cortisol samples, as well as through the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale based on maternal self-report. Parenting sensitivity was measured through coded parent-child free play interactions. Executive function was measured using the EF Touch battery and parent-reported outcomes on the CHEXI. Results indicated that higher maternal prenatal hair cortisol predicted lower child performance on the EF Touch battery at 60 months, controlling for relevant covariates. Additionally, greater maternal prenatal perceived stress was linked to poorer parent-reported executive function at 60 months. While there was not a significant moderation effect found, likely because of the direct effect prenatal stress was found to have on child executive function at 60 months, these findings suggest the importance of further research exploring different moderators for prolonged periods of time. Keywords: prenatal stress, parenting sensitivity, executive function, childhood, development, moderation.