Table 2 Descriptions of psychological measures
From: Maternal adverse childhood experiences impact fetal adrenal volume in a sex-specific manner
Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE-Q) | Participants completed the 10-item Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE-Q) [49], which assessed exposures that occurred before age 18: abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual), neglect (emotional and physical), and household dysfunction (parental separation or divorce, household domestic violence, household substance abuse, parental mental illness, and member of household imprisoned). Each exposure counted as one point. ACE scores were computed by summing all exposures (0–10) |
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) | Participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) [54], which assessed how unpredictable, uncontrollable, overloaded, and stressful they perceived their life to be. On 10 questions related to perceived stress, participants indicated how often they felt or thought a certain way over the last month (0 = never, 1 = almost never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = fairly often, 4 = very often). PSS scores were calculated by summing all items |
Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) | Participants completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) [50], which assessed depressive symptomatology over the past week. Although the scale was originally developed to measure depressive symptoms in postpartum women, it has been validated for use in antepartum women as well [83, 84]. On 10 items measuring depressive symptoms, participants indicated how often they felt or thought a certain way (e.g., “I have been sad or miserable”) on a four-point scale, with higher scores indicating greater frequency of depressive symptoms. EPDS scores were calculated by summing all items |
Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) | Participants completed the Spielberger State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) [53]. The trait anxiety subscale (STAI-T) asked participants to report how they generally felt on 20 items related to their general anxiety, e.g., “some unimportant thought runs through my mind and bothers me” (1 = almost never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often, 4 = almost always). The state anxiety subscale (STAI-S) asked participants to report how they felt at the moment on 20 items related to their current anxiety, e.g., “I feel nervous” (1 = not at all, 2 = somewhat, 3 = moderately so, 4 = very much so). Trait and state anxiety scores were calculated by summing all items |