Carolina De Weerth

Carolina De Weerth
Radboud University Medical Centre (Radboudumc) · Department of Cognitive Neuroscience

PhD, Prof.dr

About

203
Publications
59,041
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Introduction
Additional affiliations
December 2018 - present
Radboud University Medical Centre (Radboudumc)
Position
  • Professor (Full)
Description
  • For more information on our research see our lab web page: http://dpblab.org

Publications

Publications (203)
Article
Full-text available
Background Postpartum maternal distress has been associated with adverse infant outcomes. A potential pathway of how maternal distress affects infant outcomes could be alterations in maternal caregiving behavior. However, the associations between maternal distress, caregiving behavior, and infant outcomes have never been tested in a controlled expe...
Article
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Cheek swabs, heterogeneous samples consisting primarily of buccal epithelial cells, are widely used in pediatric DNA methylation studies and biomarker creation. However, the decrease in buccal proportion with age in adults remains unexamined in childhood. We analyzed cheek swabs from 4626 typically developing children 2-months to 20-years-old. Esti...
Article
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Context In adults, cortisol levels show a pronounced 24-hour rhythm with a peak in the early morning. It is unknown at what age this early-morning peak in cortisol emerges during infancy, hampering the establishment of optimal dosing regimens for hydrocortisone replacement therapy in infants with an inborn form of adrenal insufficiency. Objective...
Article
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The present study aims to gain a greater understanding of the manner in which culture may impact parenting and, thus, child development by examining the relationship between cultural values, socialization goals (SGs), and parental ethnotheories (PEs). Specifically, this study examined links between cultural value dimensions (i.e., individualism/col...
Article
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Background. Although spending time outdoors is beneficial for development, little is known about outdoor time during infancy. The aim of this study was to assess frequencies and durations of (1a) outdoor walking and carrying in mother–infant dyads and (1b) infant outdoor sleeping in a stationary cot or pram. We furthermore aimed to identify associa...
Article
Environmental influences before and during pregnancy significantly impact offspring development. This study investigates open research questions regarding the associations between maternal early life stress (ELS), prenatal psychosocial stress, prenatal hair cortisol (HC), and birth outcomes in Argentinian women. Data on ELS, prenatal life events, H...
Article
This study sought to examine the effects of childhood adversity on the longitudinal associations between perinatal sleep quality and depressive symptoms, and to determine the prospective associations between these constructs over time. A cross‐lagged autoregressive model was used to examine the longitudinal association between sleep quality and dep...
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The gut microbiota is vital for human body development and function. Its development in early life is influenced by various environmental factors. In this randomized controlled trial, the gut microbiota was obtained as a secondary outcome measure in a study on the effects of one hour of daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) for five weeks in healthy ful...
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Habituation and dishabituation are the most prevalent measures of infant cognitive functioning, and they have reliably been shown to predict later cognitive outcomes. Yet, the exact mechanisms underlying infant habituation and dishabituation are still unclear. To investigate them, we tested 106 8‐month‐old infants on a classic habituation task and...
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Early life is a sensitive period when microbiota-gut-brain interactions may have important impact on development. This study investigated the associations of the gut microbiota in the first three years of life (two, six, and 12 weeks, and one and three years) with problem behavior and executive functions in N = 64 three-year-old children. Higher re...
Article
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A growing number of studies have indicated relations between the gut microbiota and mental health. However, to date, there is a scarcity of microbiota studies in community samples in early puberty. The current preregistered study (https://osf.io/wu2vt) investigated gut microbiota composition in relation to sex in low-risk children and explored beha...
Article
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Background : Prolonged stress exposure is associated with alterations in cortisol output. The COVID‐19 pandemic represented a stressor for many, including children. However, a high‐quality caregiving environment may protect against psychological problems and possibly against elevations in cortisol. We examined adolescents’ physiological stress resp...
Article
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Observational studies have determined numerous correlations between sequence-based gut microbiota data and human mental traits. However, these associations are often inconsistent across studies. This inconsistency is one of the reasons that mechanistic validation studies of the observed correlations are lagging, making it difficult to establish cau...
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The risk for unhealthy eating behaviour, including poor diet quality and emotional eating, is heightened in adolescence and could result in profound and long-lasting psychological and physical implications. Caregiving quality and adolescents' regulatory skills, such as inhibitory control, may play an essential role in the development of adolescent...
Preprint
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Animal studies show that early life environmental factors, such as stress and trauma, can have a significant impact on a variety of bodily processes, including cellular aging and brain development. However, whether cellular wear-and-tear effects are also associated with individual differences in brain structures in humans, remains unknown. In this...
Article
There is accumulating evidence for positive effects of green spaces on mental and brain health. Here we investigated whether differentiating the types of green spaces may be relevant. On longitudinal data of children ( N = 95) from the Netherlands, we quantified the link between green space exposure at home from birth onwards and MRI brain structur...
Article
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Background Individual Shantala Infant Massage is an intervention that is offered by several Dutch Preventive Child Healthcare (PCH) organizations as optional preventive support, in addition to basic care as offered to all children. It targets vulnerable families and aims to enhance sensitive parenting and to reduce (effects of) parental stress. The...
Article
Early temperament attributes have been linked to emerging behaviour problems and significant long‐term consequences; however, these relations are rarely examined cross‐culturally. The present study addresses this gap, employing multilevel modelling to explain within‐ and between‐culture variances with respect to temperament predicting a spectrum of...
Article
Aim: The recommendations of 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) and parent-infant room-sharing (RS) are often not followed. As these early caregiving practices may have been affected by the COVID-19-related restrictions, we documented BF and RS practices in the Netherlands (2020-2021) and the effects of perceived perinatal healthcare support...
Preprint
Habituation and dishabituation are the most prevalent measures of infant cognitive abilities, and they have reliably been shown to predict later cognitive functioning. Yet, the exact cognitive processes that underlie them are still unknown. To shed light on the cognitive factors that underlie infant habituation and dishabituation, we tested 164 8-m...
Article
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Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are one of the most abundant solid components in a mother’s milk. Animal studies have confirmed a link between early life exposure to HMOs and better cognitive outcomes in the offspring. Human studies on HMOs and associations with later child cognition are scarce. In this preregistered longitudinal study, we inves...
Article
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The early caregiving environment can have lasting effects on child mental health. Animal models suggest that glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) DNA methylation plays a mediating role in linking more responsive caregiving to improved behavioral outcomes by its impact on the stress regulatory system. In this longitudinal study, we examined whether...
Article
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This commentary is based on the premise that the goal of scientific publications is to advance knowledge and inspire scientific discussion. First, the Nomura et al. paper is briefly summarized and shortly discussed to illustrate some of the challenges faced in this field, and suggestions for improvement are made. Then, the reader is invited to take...
Article
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Purpose In early-onset preeclampsia, each additional day of pregnancy prolongation reduces offspring infant mortality about 9%. We evaluated if maternal stress at admission to hospital for early-onset preeclampsia predicted admission-to-delivery intervals in days. Methods This prospective, longitudinal cohort-study involved 15 singleton pregnancie...
Article
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Objectives The present study examined parental sleep-supporting practices during toddlerhood in relation to temperament across 14 cultures. We hypothesized that passive sleep-supporting techniques (e.g., talking, cuddling), but not active techniques (e.g., walking, doing an activity together), would be associated with less challenging temperament p...
Article
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The cognitive skills critical for success have largely been studied in Western populations, despite the fact that children in low- and middle-income countries are at risk to not reach their full developmental potential. Moreover, scientists should leverage recent discovery to explore means of boosting cognition in at-risk populations. This semi-ran...
Article
Skin‐to‐skin contact (SSC) between mothers and their infants has beneficial effects in both preterm and full‐term infants. Underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. This randomized controlled trial assessed whether daily SSC in full‐term mother–infant dyads: (1) decreases infants’ cortisol and behavioral reactivity to a mild naturalistic stressor,...
Article
One of the proposed mechanisms linking childhood stressor exposure to negative mental and physical health outcomes in later life is cellular aging. In this prospective, longitudinal, and pre‐registered study, we examined the association between a cumulative pattern of childhood risk exposure from age 6 to age 10 (i.e., poor maternal mental health,...
Article
Evolutionary-developmental psychologists have posited that individuals who grow up in stressful rearing circumstances follow faster life history strategies, thereby increasing their chances of reproduction. This preregistered study tested this stress-acceleration hypothesis in a low-risk longitudinal sample of 193 Dutch mother-child dyads, by inves...
Article
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A compelling amount of animal and human research has shown that perceived maternal stress during pregnancy can affect the neurodevelopment of the offspring. Prenatal maternal cortisol is frequently proposed as the biological key mechanism underlying this link; however, literature that investigates the effects of prenatal cortisol on subsequent neur...
Article
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Background Daily skin‐to‐skin contact (SSC) during early infancy fosters the long‐term development of children born preterm. This is the first randomized controlled trial assessing the potential beneficial effects of daily SSC on executive functioning and socio‐emotional behavior of children born full‐term. Whether children of mothers who experienc...
Article
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Background: Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy, including stress resulting from disasters and trauma, has been linked to temperamental difficulties in offspring. Although heightened cortisol concentrations are often hypothesized as an underlying mechanism, evidence supporting this mechanism is not consistent, potentially because of met...
Preprint
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Purpose: In early-onset preeclampsia, each additional day of pregnancy prolongation reduces offspring infant mortality about 9%. We evaluated if maternal stress at admission to hospital for early-onset preeclampsia predicted admission-to-delivery intervals in days. Methods: This prospective, longitudinal cohort-study involved 15 singleton pregnanci...
Article
Full-text available
This randomized controlled trial examined the effects of a daily hour of mother-infant skin-to-skin contact (SSC) during the first five postnatal weeks, compared to care-as-usual, on maternal depressive (primary outcome), anxiety, stress, fatigue, pain, and delivery-related post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Prenatal symptom severity and touch...
Article
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This randomized controlled trial (NTR5697) examined the effects of a 5-week daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) intervention, compared with care-as-usual, on full-term infant crying and sleeping duration during the first 12 weeks postnatally (secondary outcomes of this trial). This trial included 116 Dutch healthy mothers and their full-term infants....
Article
Given that parental caregiving quality affects child development from birth onwards, it is important to detect parents who are at risk for low-quality caregiving as early as possible, preferably before or soon after birth. This study investigated whether cortisol (CORT) and testosterone (T) measured during the last trimester of pregnancy and six we...
Article
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Background The Covid-19 pandemic has put an unprecedented pressure on families with children. How parents were affected by the first Covid-19 lockdown during the early postpartum period, an already challenging period for many, is unknown. Aim To investigate the associations between Covid-19 related stress, mental health, and insensitive parenting...
Article
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Maternal prenatal distress is associated with child outcomes, including health, neurocognitive, and socio-emotional development. Knowledge on underlying mechanisms is limited, yet relevant for prevention and intervention. This study investigated whether maternal prenatal distress predicts specific caregiving practices that are known for their effec...
Article
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Human milk is a highly complex liquid food tailor-made to match an infant's needs. Beyond documented positive effects of breastfeeding on infant and maternal health, there is increasing evidence that milk constituents also impact child neurodevelopment. Non-nutrient milk bioactives would contribute to the (long-term) development of child cognition...
Article
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Background The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown pose a threat for adolescents’ mental health, especially for those with an earlier vulnerability. Accordingly, these adolescents may need increased support from family and friends. This study investigated whether family functioning and peer connectedness protects adolescents with earlier internalizing o...
Article
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Animal models suggest that the gut microbiota can influence cognitive development and functioning via various pathways. In line with that, a first human study found associations between infant fecal microbiota composition and cognition at 2 years of age. This longitudinal study investigated whether fecal microbiota composition in infancy and childh...
Article
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Childhood obesity is a risk factor for numerous health conditions. A critical factor in the etiology of obesity appears to be the gut microbiota, which is the microbial community that resides in the human gut. The ratio of the phyla Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes (F/B) and gut bacterial genera that produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) have been sug...
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Background Increasing evidence indicates that psychopathological disorders are associated with the gut microbiota. However, data are largely lacking from long-term longitudinal birth cohorts, especially those comprising low-risk healthy individuals. Therefore, this study aims to describe gut microbiota development in healthy children from birth til...
Article
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While pregnant women are already at-risk for developing symptoms of anxiety and depression, this is heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compared anxiety and depression symptoms, as indicators of psychological distress, before and during COVID-19, and investigated the role of partner, social network and healthcare support on COVID-19-related...
Article
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Inhibitory control is the ability to control impulsive behavior. It is associated with a range of mental and physical health outcomes, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and substance dependence. Breastfeeding and healthy dietary patterns have been associated with better executive functions, of which inhibitory control is part. Addi...
Article
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Background The Fetal Origins of Mental Health is a well-established framework that currently lacks a robust index of the biological embedding of prenatal adversity. The Pediatric Buccal Epigenetic (PedBE) clock is a novel epigenetic tool that associates with aspects of the prenatal environment but additional validation in longitudinal datasets is r...
Article
This study advances the cross-cultural temperament literature by comparing temperament ratings of toddlers from 14 nations. Multilevel modeling (MLM) procedures were utilized to regress negative emotionality (NE) and component subscales on Hofstede’s cultural value dimensions while controlling for age and gender. More individualistic values were as...
Article
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This randomized controlled trial evaluated the effect of a 5-week daily skin-to-skin contact (SSC) intervention between mothers and their full-term infants, compared with care-as-usual, on exclusive and continued breastfeeding duration during the first post-natal year. Healthy pregnant women (n = 116) from a community sample were enrolled and rando...
Article
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Maternal anxiety and depression symptomatology are risk factors for the development of children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. However, it is still unclear whether chronic and transient symptoms relate differently to child behavior. The aim of this prospective longitudinal study (N = 193) was to investigate the associations be...
Article
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To follow human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) biosynthesis and in vivometabolization, mother milk and infant feces from 68 mother–infant dyads at 2, 6, and 12 weeks postpartum were analyzed, with 18 major HMOs quantitated. Fucosylated and neutral core HMO levels in milk were dependent on mothers’ Lewis/Secretor status, whereas most sialylated HMO leve...
Article
Television exposure in early childhood has increased, with concerns raised regarding adverse effects on social-emotional development, and emerging self-regulation in particular. The present study addressed television exposure (i.e., amount of time watching TV) and its associations with toddler behavioral/emotional dysregulation, examining potential...
Article
This semi-randomized controlled trial examined the effects of a probiotic food supplement on cortisol and C-reactive protein (CRP) in a sample of 262 four-to seven-year-old children (56% girls) in two economically-disadvantaged schools in an urban setting in Côte d’Ivoire. For one semester, children in one school were randomized to receive a probio...
Article
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Background: Global crises inevitably increase levels of anxiety in postpartum populations. Effective and efficient measurement is therefore essential. This study aimed to create a 12-item research short form of the 51-item Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale [PSAS] and validate it for use in rapid response research at a time of global crises [PSAS-RS...
Article
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Probiotic use may be an efficacious treatment option to effectively manage symptoms of prenatal maternal anxiety and depression. Our primary aim was to test feasibility and acceptability for a probiotic randomized controlled trial (RCT) in pregnant women with pre-existing symptoms. This double-blind pilot RCT included 40 pregnant women with low-ris...
Article
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Studies indicate that pregnancy is associated with declines in working memory (WM), potentially due to the intense pregnancy hormonal fluctuations. These declines extend into the postpartum period and may even be worsened due to sleepless nights and continued hormonal changes. However, previous studies finding WM stability from pregnancy to postpar...
Article
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Childhood psychiatric symptoms may be associated with advanced biological aging. This study examined whether epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) associates with internalizing and externalizing symptoms that were prospectively collected across childhood in a longitudinal cohort study. At age 6 buccal epithelial cells from 148 children (69 girls) were...
Article
Background: While many women experience prenatal symptoms of anxiety and/or depression (PSAD), treatment uptake rates are relatively low. Left untreated, symptoms can unfavorably affect maternal and infant health. The first aim of this study was to identify the treatment uptake rate and modalities of treatment received in a community sample of Dutc...
Article
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The experiences of diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD), cardiac surgery and hospitalisation(s) are distressing and represent a significant stressor for a child and family, which may impact psychosocial development. This systematic review provides a synthesis of psychosocial outcomes of infants and young children with congenital heart diseas...
Article
Maternal antenatal depression strongly influences child mental health but with considerable inter-individual variation that is, in part, linked to genotype. The challenge is to effectively capture the genotypic influence. We outline a novel approach to describe genomic susceptibility to maternal antenatal depression focusing on child emotional/beha...
Article
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Background and Aims: Persons with combined sensory and intellectual disabilities are more sensitive to stress than people without disabilities, especially when they have an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Reversely, stress can also trigger ASD symptoms. The current study investigated the relationship between stress and ASD symptoms in this populati...