Children born during the pandemic are not more likely to show signs of autism, according to a study released last month in JAMA.

Additionally, the study found that “opposite to our hypothesis” the children of mothers infected with COVID were less likely to show traits of autism.

Study authors Morgan Firestein, Angela Manessis and Jennifer Warmingham, psychologists at Columbia University, examined 2,000 children total who received care at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York. They distinguished between children born in 2018 and 2019, or before the pandemic, and those birthed during COVID.

Children born during COVID could be more susceptible to an autism diagnosis because stress and viral illness during pregnancy are associated with neurodevelopmental conditions, the study noted.

Also, COVID resulted in greater mental health needs among pregnant and postpartum individuals, and that higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol during pregnancy is linked to lower educational attainment in offspring, the report stated.

But after conducting screenings using the modified checklist for autism in toddlers, they found that 23% of the children born before the pandemic showed characteristics associated with an autism diagnosis, and that 23% of children born during the pandemic screened as having signs of autism.

There was also no greater association of autism conditions in the subgroups analyzed, which included classifications based on race, gender and if the mother was enrolled in Medicaid or private insurance.

Most surprisingly to the authors was “an unanticipated significant association” between a mother’s prenatal exposure to COVID and lower rates of positive autism screenings. Just 12% of the children of parents directly exposed to COVID showed autism symptoms.

The authors described their conclusions as reassuring, but noted that follow-up screenings are needed to see if children born during COVID may develop neurodivergent conditions later.

Also, the authors noted that most mothers exposed to COVID in the study had mild illnesses. Future studies, they said, should examine the children of mothers who had a more severe bout of COVID.