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Mothers' experience of racial prejudice affects the development of their children's brains

20-02-2024,
Weronika Janiak

You can read this text in 2 min.

Mothers' experience of racial prejudice affects the development of their children's brains

PantherMedia

Pregnancy

Does the experience of social inequality or racial prejudice during pregnancy affect the development of their offspring's functional connections during the fetal period?

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The lived experience of social inequality or racial prejudice during pregnancy impinges not only on the health of the mother-to-be, but also on the development of the functional connections of their offspring during the fetal period. This was the conclusion reached by US researchers, who shared their observations in detail in their new study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology in November 2023.

Using dedicated questionnaires, they analysed three influencing factors:

  • the experience of acculturation in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy,
  • experience of discrimination and depressive states in the first, second and third trimester of pregnancy,
  • the socio-economic status of the 165 women surveyed based on six compartments.

Acculturative stress, Brain, Development, Fetus, Infant, Newborn, Pregnancy

Racial prejudice experienced by the mother and child development, photo: panthermedia

Almost nine out of 10 respondents were teenagers of Hispanic origin. Factors such as head circumference, gestational age at birth and Apgar scale at five minutes after birth were taken into account for their children.

They found that unequal treatment of the mother during pregnancy by others on the basis of ethnic or racial group, gender, age or sexual orientation was associated in foetuses with weaker connectivity between the amygdala, which is responsible for emotional memory and behaviour, and the prefrontal cortex, which influences working memory performance and action planning.

In the infants studied, they also observed stronger connectivity between the amygdala and the sphenoid bend, which, among other things, houses the facial and emotion recognition centre. The researchers concluded that this study may provide evidence for the transmission of trauma from one generation to the next, although they recommend further exploration of this topic to confirm or deny this thesis.

Acculturative stress, Brain, Development, Fetus, Infant, Newborn, Pregnancy

Experiencing racial prejudice during pregnancy, photo: panthermedia

The impact of the phenomenon of discrimination and acculturation stress, the process of adapting to the culture of one's surroundings, has been widely reported in other research studies.

Among the negative effects of discrimination and acculturation on the expectant mother, other studies cite an increased incidence of depression, a higher incidence of anxiety and increased stress levels. The consequences of a mother's difficult experiences during pregnancy also include higher infant mortality, increased risk of premature birth and reduced birth weight. In the United States, which has a large immigrant population, the impact of acculturative stress on immigrants can reach up to the third generation.