Maternal prenatal smoking, parental antisocial behavior, and early childhood physical aggression

Abstract

This study investigated joint effects of maternal prenatal smoking and parental history of antisocial behavior on physical aggression between ages 17 and 42 months in a population sample of children born in Québec (N = 1,745). An analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant main effects of maternal prenatal smoking and a significant interaction between maternal prenatal smoking and mother's history of antisocial behavior in the prediction of children's probability to display high and rising physical aggression. The interaction indicated that the effects of heavy smoking during pregnancy (≥10 cigarettes/day) were greater when the mother also had a serious history of antisocial behavior. The effects remained significant after the introduction of control variables (e.g., hostile-reactive parenting, family functioning, parental separation/divorce, family income, and maternal education). Another significant interaction not accounted for by control variables was observed for maternal prenatal smoking and family income, indicating more serious effects of maternal prenatal smoking under relatively low-income, conditions. Both interactions indicate critical adversities that, in combination with maternal prenatal smoking, have supraadditive effects on (the development of) physical aggression during early childhood. These findings may have implications for the selection of intervention targets and strategies.Physical aggression is present in the majority of young children and it decreases with age as emotion regulation skills and alternative conflict-resolution strategies emerge, aided by development of language and cognitive abilities (Tremblay, 2000;Tremblay & Nagin, 2005). However, it is also clear that those children who show the highest levels of physical aggression during early childhood are most at risk of chronic physical aggression throughout childhood (Côté, Vaillancourt, LeBlanc, Nagin, & Tremblay, 2006; NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2004), followed by serious violent and nonviolent delinquency during adolescence (Broidy et al., 2003;Nagin & Tremblay, 1999). Recent studies show that children with early, persistent aggression show not only more externalizing problems at CIHR Author Manuscript CIHR Author Manuscript CIHR Author Manuscriptfollow-up but also more internalizing and peer problems (e.g., depression, loneliness, poor friendship quality) compared with children on the lower and desisting aggression trajectories (Campbell, Spieker, Burchinal, Poe, & The NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2006). It is therefore important to determine which factors or combinations of factors predict consistently high physical aggression during early childhood.Research has linked maternal prenatal smoking to early childhood physical aggression (Huijbregts, Séguin, Zoccolillo, Boivin, & Tremblay, 2007;Tremblay et al., 2004) and to other externalizing (Orlebeke, Knol, & Verhulst, 1997) and disruptive behavior problems (Wakschlag, Leventhal, Pine, Pickett, & Carter, 2006). Maternal prenatal smoking...

Childhood obesity and parental smoking as risk factors for childhood ADHD in Liverpool children

“…Conversely, most ADHD studies have reported higher prevalence among male children (Al Hamed et al 2008;Van den ban et al 2010). Heavy maternal smoking at C 10 cigarettes per day has been associated with early childhood physical aggression, when the mother had a history of anti-social behaviour and the effects were greater in families living under lowincome conditions (Huijbregts et al 2008). In the present study, an independent association with lower socio-economic status was not identified, but the majority of households were situated in low socio-economic areas.…”

Seelische Gesundheit von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der stationären Jugendhilfe/Heimerziehung

“…führen können" Jugendlichen (Rutter, 1989;Blanz et al, 1991;Esser & Schmidt, 1997;Manly et al, 2001;Hanson et al, 2006; Persönlichkeitsstörungen (Kaplow & Widom, 2007;Rutter, 1989;Putnam, 2003;Spataro et al, 2004). Auch der Konsum von Alkohol und Nikotin während der Schwangerschaft gilt als Hochrisikofaktor für die Entwicklung externalisierender Verhaltensweisen bei Kindern (Laucht & Schmidt, 2004;Huijbregts et al, 2007;Linnet et al, 2003).…”

The developmental origins of chronic physical aggression: biological pathways triggered by early life adversity

“…As parents, they tended to create an early childhood family environment that did not support learning to regulate physically aggressive reactions. Studies focusing on early environmental predictors for childhood CPA have identified four general categories of predictors: maternal characteristics/lifestyle/ mental health, family characteristics, maternal parenting and child characteristics (Campbell et al, 2006; Campbell et al, 2010;Huijbregts et al, 2008;Nagin and Tremblay, 2001;Tremblay, 2010;Tremblay et al, 2004). Maternal smoking, level of education, depression and antisocial behaviour, low family income and dysfunction were all found to be significant risk factors.…”

“…In humans, we found that maternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with lower brain 5-HT synthesis in the orbitofrontal cortex (OBFC) in adults . Notably, prenatal exposure to nicotine is one of the early environmental predictors of physical aggression in children (Huijbregts et al, 2008). Methylation in the SLC6A4 transporter gene has been found to correlate with early adversity.…”