Sex-dimorphic pathways in the associations between maternal trait anxiety, infant BDNF methylation and negative emotionality

<p>This database includes the raw data linked with the paper &ldquo;Sex-dimorphic pathways in the associations between maternal trait anxiety, infant BDNF methylation and negative emotionality&rdquo; accepted for publication on Development and Psychopathology. This study is part of the longitudinal and multi-centric &ldquo;Measuring the outcomes of maternal COVID-19-related prenatal exposure (MOM-COPE)&rdquo; study. Here, we report on the sex-dependent effects of antenatal exposure to maternal anxiety on infants&rsquo; methylation levels of the BDNF gene at birth and on negative emotionality trajectories from 3 to 6 months of age.</p> <p>Procedures</p> <p>Mother&ndash;infant dyads (N = 276) were recruited at delivery. Maternal trait anxiety, as a marker of antenatal chronic stress exposure, was assessed soon after delivery using the Stait-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y). Infants&rsquo; BDNF DNAm at birth was assessed in 11 CpG sites in buccal cells whereas infants&rsquo; NE was assessed at 3 (N = 225) and 6 months (N = 189) using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R).</p> <p>Analytical plan</p> <p>Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the number of CpG sites into a smaller set of factors. The PCA yielded 2 principal components: PC1 (composed of 6 CpG sites) and PC2 (composed of 5 CpG sites). Separate hierarchical regression analyses were performed to evaluate the independent and interactive effects of infant gender and maternal anxiety on infant methylation levels.</p> <p>Hierarchical linear models (HLMs) were performed to investigate sex-dimorphic associations between infant NE trajectory from 3 to 6 months and maternal trait anxiety or infant BDNF methylation.</p> <p>Findings in brief</p> <p>Higher maternal antenatal anxiety was associated with greater 6-month-olds&rsquo; NE. Furthermore, maternal antenatal anxiety predicted greater infants&rsquo; BDNF methylation in five CpG sites in males but not in females. Higher methylation at these sites was associated with greater 3-to-6-month NE increase, independently of infants&rsquo; sex.</p>