Date of Award

8-24-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

First Advisor

Elysia Poggi Davis

Second Advisor

Yavuz Yaşar

Third Advisor

Julia Dmitrieva

Fourth Advisor

Kamilah Legette

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Pregnancy, Health, Intergenerational transmission, Corticotropin-releasing hormone, Prenatal stress

Abstract

The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis suggests that pregnancy is a developmentally sensitive period during which environmental factors can have long term consequences for the pregnant individual and the fetus. This model regards pregnancy as a mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of health. The aim of the current dissertation is to identify sociocultural stressors that put pregnant individuals at risk and understand how stress-responsive hormones might impact infant emotional development after birth. The first study focuses on types of discrimination as sociocultural stressors and how they relate to markers of psychological and physiological stress among pregnant individuals. The second study focuses on a stress-responsive hormone released by the placenta, placental corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), and tests whether changes in placental CRH over gestation predict infant negative emotionality. Results of the firs study show that interpersonal experiences of racial and ethnic discrimination are a risk factor for higher prenatal stress among Latinx pregnant individuals. However, birthplace of the pregnant individual moderates this result so that US-born individuals are at higher risk than foreign-born individuals. Moreover, second study finds that accelerated placental CRH trajectories are related to lower negative emotionality response among 6-month-old boys but not girls. These findings support the idea that pregnancy is a sensitive period that is prone to environmental inputs and may influence offspring development beyond birth. All findings from the two studies as well as contributions to extant literature, limitations, and future directions are discussed in detail.

Copyright Date

8-2024

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Özlü Aran

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

110 pgs

File Size

1.4 MB

Download

Available for download on Friday, October 16, 2026



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