Prenatal Stress and Child Development: The Future That Lies Ahead

As widely discussed in this volume, mounting evidence traces the developmental origins of psychopathology to the perinatal period (Hughes et al. 2013), yet studies continue to yield small to moderate effect sizes (Stein et al. 2014). Moreover, to date there has been little evidence that early interventions during pregnancy lead to a reduction in the incidence or prevalence of psychopathology. Importantly, symptoms reflecting emerging psychopathology appear early in life, with 50% identifiable before the age of 5, and rates of impairment remain stable across infancy, adolescence, and adulthood. Most mental health disorders emerge during the second decade just as youth are about to enter their more productive tasks and accomplishments in life, robbing them of academic, emotional, and social well-being. Whereas there has been substantial improvement in identification and treatment in chronic and life-limiting conditions such as heart disease, cancer, and even HIV, poor mental health has today surpassed these disorders to become the leading cause of disability across the lifespan (C. J. Murray et al. 2013; Health 2020). For meaningful reduction in incidence and morbidity to occur and for the burden of suffering to be alleviated, we will need a better lifespan understanding of the developmental origins of psychopathology starting as early as the prenatal period of life.