Despite this popular interest, there is an absence of empirical evidence evaluating a possible developmental trajectory in LGBTQ distress and the factors that might influence distress over time.
Interparental violence [ 34, 35], negative parenting [ 38] or childhood parentification [ 19] have been shown to be factors that determine the developmental pathway from parental distress to child mental health disorders.
Studies that detect an association between prenatal maternal psychological distress and child developmental outcomes are subject to a number of interpretative challenges in the inference of causality.
Even very young children or those with developmental disabilities can sense the distress of trusted adults.
The proband (Case III-1, Fig. 1A) is a British 18-year-old male who had a difficult caesarean birth, with perinatal distress and subsequent developmental delay.
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are common developmental neuropsychiatric disorders associated with significant distress and dysfunction.
Several recent studies have reported a relationship between high maternal distress levels during gestation and poor developmental outcomes in offspring [ 4- 7].
Hoffman also distinguishes between five developmental stages of empathic responses ranging from the reactive newborn cry, egocentric empathic distress, quasi-ego-centric empathic distress, to veridical distress and empathy for another beyond the immediate situation.
Likewise, poor parental relationships should be included in future studies as marital distress also constitutes a major threat to developmental outcome [ 21].
There is an increasing body of evidence from both animal and human studies that psychosocial distress in pregnancy has significant impacts on developmental and behavioural outcomes for children [ 20], and health in later life [ 21].
