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Objective: Offspring of mothers with depression are at increased risk for executive function (EF) deficits and later depressive symptoms, but limited studies examined EF as an intermediary pathway. This study examined the role of EF in mediating the association between maternal and child depressive symptoms., Method: Data were from a longitudinal birth cohort consisting of 739 participants followed from the antenatal period for 12 years. Mothers completed the Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale at 26-28 weeks' gestation, at 3 months, and 24 months postpartum. At 8.5-10 years, children self-reported the Children's Depression Inventory-2. Task-based and parent-reported EF measures were collected at four timepoints between 3.5 and 8.5 years. Latent growth curve models examined antenatal depressive symptoms and its trajectory in contributing to cold (i.e., cognitive) and hot (i.e., affective) EF. We then assessed the extent to which EF mediated this association., Results: Maternal depressive symptoms did not directly predict depressive symptoms in late childhood. Antenatal depressive symptoms predicted lower cold (ß = -0.13, 95% CI= -0.25, -0.004) and hot EF (ß = -0.26, 95% CI= -0.38, -0.15). Deficits in cold EF (ß = -0.26, 95% CI = -0.41, -0.11) acted as an intermediary path to depressive symptoms, while hot EF mediated the association between maternal and child depressive symptoms, forming an indirect path that accounted for 37.5% of the association., Conclusion: Deficits in hot EF may be a pathway in explaining the intergenerational transmission of depression. The finding suggests fostering EF skills as a potential strategy for at-risk children., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Maternal depression and anxiety through pregnancy have lasting societal impacts. It is thus crucial to understand the trajectories of its progression from preconception to postnatal period, and the risk factors associated with it. Within the Bayesian framework, we propose to jointly model seven outcomes, of which two are physiological and five non-physiological indicators of maternal depression and anxiety over time. We model the former two by a Gaussian process and the latter by an autoregressive model, while imposing a multidimensional Dirichlet process prior on the subject-specific random effects to account for subject heterogeneity and induce clustering. The model allows for the inclusion of covariates through a regression term. Our findings reveal four distinct clusters of trajectories of the seven health outcomes, characterising women's mental health progression from before to after pregnancy. Importantly, our results caution against the loose use of hair corticosteroids as a biomarker, or even a causal factor, for pregnancy mental health progression. Additionally, the regression analysis reveals a range of preconception determinants and risk factors for depressive and anxiety symptoms during pregnancy., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

The Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes (S-PRESTO) is a preconception, longitudinal cohort study that aims to study the effects of nutrition, lifestyle, and maternal mood prior to and during pregnancy on the epigenome of the offspring and clinically important outcomes including duration of gestation, fetal growth, metabolic and neural phenotypes in the offspring. Between February 2015 and October 2017, the S-PRESTO study recruited 1039 Chinese, Malay or Indian (or any combinations thereof) women aged 18-45 years and who intended to get pregnant and deliver in Singapore, resulting in 1032 unique participants and 373 children born in the cohort. The participants were followed up for 3 visits during the preconception phase and censored at 12 months of follow up if pregnancy was not achieved (N = 557 censored). Women who successfully conceived (N = 475) were characterised at gestational weeks 6-8, 11-13, 18-21, 24-26, 27-28 and 34-36. Follow up of their index offspring (N = 373 singletons) is on-going at birth, 1, 3 and 6 weeks, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months and beyond. Women are also being followed up post-delivery. Data is collected via interviewer-administered questionnaires, metabolic imaging (magnetic resonance imaging), standardized anthropometric measurements and collection of diverse specimens, i.e. blood, urine, buccal smear, stool, skin tapes, epithelial swabs at numerous timepoints. S-PRESTO has extensive repeated data collected which include genetic and epigenetic sampling from preconception which is unique in mother-offspring epidemiological cohorts. This enables prospective assessment of a wide array of potential determinants of future health outcomes in women from preconception to post-delivery and in their offspring across the earliest development from embryonic stages into early childhood. In addition, the S-PRESTO study draws from the three major Asian ethnic groups that represent 50% of the global population, increasing the relevance of its findings to global efforts to address non-communicable diseases.