Pediatric Diabetes 2014 doi: 10.1111/pedi.12168 All rights reserved  2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Pediatric Diabetes Original Article Maternal anxiety about a child’s diabetes risk in the TEDDY study: the potential role of life stress, postpartum depression, and risk perception Roth R, Lynch K, Lernmark B, Baxter J, Simell T, Smith L, Swartling U, Ziegler A-G, Johnson SB, The TEDDY Study Group. Maternal anxiety about a child’s diabetes risk in TEDDY study: the potential role of life stress, postpartum depression, and risk perception. Pediatric Diabetes 2014. Objective: To understand the association between life stress, postpartum depression (PD), maternal perception of her child’s risk for type 1 diabetes (T1D) and a mother’s anxiety about her child’s T1D risk in mothers of genetically at risk children in The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study. Methods: A short form of the state component (SAI) of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, negative life events (LE), the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and one question about the child’s risk of developing T1D risk perceptions (RP) were given to mothers at the 6-month TEDDY clinic visit. The relationship between the four measures was modeled using multiple regressions. Results: Controlling for sociodemographic factors, significant country differences in SAI, LE, EPDS, and RP emerged. LE – particularly interpersonal LE – had a strong association to maternal anxiety about the baby’s risk of diabetes. Both evidence of PD and accurate risk perceptions (RPs) about the child’s T1D risk were associated with increased maternal anxiety about the child’s T1D risk. Conclusion: Heightened maternal anxiety in response to the news that a child is at increased risk for T1D is common. Mothers who have experienced recent negative LE, who experience PD and who accurately understand their child’s risk may be particularly vulnerable to high levels of anxiety. The findings reported here need to be confirmed in future prospective studies. Roswith Roth a,b , Kristian Lynch c , Barbro Lernmark d , Judy Baxter e,f , Tuula Simell g , Laura Smith h , Ulrica Swartling d , Anette-G Ziegler a , Suzanne B Johnson i and The TEDDY Study Group † a Institut f ¨ ur Diabetesforschung, Helmholtz Zentrum M ¨ unchen, Ingolst ¨ adter Landstraße 1, Neuherberg 85764, Germany; b Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Universitaetsplatz 2/III, Graz 8010, Austria; c Pediatrics Epidemiology Centre, University of South Florida, Tampa FL 33612, USA; d Department of Clinical Sciences, University Hospital MAS, Lund University, Malm ¨ o 20502, Sweden; e Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver-AMC, Aurora CO 80045, USA; f Department of Community and Behavioral Health, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Denver-AMC, Aurora CO 80045, USA; g Department of Pediatrics, University of Turku, Turku University Hospital, Klinamyllynkatu 4-8, Turku 20520, Finland; h Department of Pediatrics, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA; and i Department of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences, Florida State University College of Medicine, Talahassee, FL 32306-4300, USA † Members of the TEDDY Study Group are listed in Appendix. 1