Problematic behaviours of 3-year-old children in Japan: Relationship with socioeconomic and family backgrounds

Smoking in pregnancy and disruptive behaviour in 3-year-old boys and girls: an analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study

“…Our results support other research suggesting that cigarette smoke is associated with precursors to disruptive behaviour in young children, including difficult temperament in infants aged 9 months,14 externalising problems in toddlers aged 18 months,12 and physical aggression and defiance in children aged 3 years and younger 9 10 11. Two studies with much lower statistical power report no significant associations between externalising behaviour of 3 year olds and smoking during pregnancy 37 38. Despite not reaching significance, the ORs for aggressive and inattention/hyperactivity problems in one study were 1.40 and 1.78, respectively; similar to the present study 37…”

Children’s Media Use and Self-Regulation Behavior: Longitudinal Associations in a Nationwide Japanese Study

“…We considered the following variables to be potential confounders in this analysis: maternal age (continuous); paternal age (continuous); maternal educational attainment; paternal educational attainment; maternal smoking (yes/no); and paternal smoking (yes/no). We also considered the influence of parental working status on the children's media use [32,34]. We did so because the duration of media use is influenced by how much time the mother devotes to communicating with the child.…”

Prenatal vitamin A supplementation associated with adverse child behavior at 3 years in a prospective birth cohort in Japan

“…Scales were determined for composite internal, external, and total behavioral problems. Raw scores for each scale and domain can be converted into t ‐scores, a method validated by Nakata et al and used in clinical studies . Simultaneously, maternal anxiety was measured on the STAI, which is composed of 20 symptoms rated by the mothers on a 1–4 scale: 1, not true; 2, somewhat not true; 3, somewhat true; or 4, very or often true.…”

“…A variety of maternal habits and other factors during pregnancy may have an adverse effect on child behavior, including alcohol consumption; tobacco smoking; housing status; and income status . In our previous, retrospective cohort study of 670 3‐year‐old children and their families, familial education level and maternal anxiety measured on the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), had strong effects on child behavior …”

“…5 In our previous, retrospective cohort study of 670 3-yearold children and their families, familial education level and maternal anxiety measured on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), 6 had strong effects on child behavior. 7 Although the exact percentage of people taking supplements such as vitamin A in Japan is unclear, approximately 25% of adults take supplements containing vitamin A and approximately 5% take supplements with vitamin A only. 8 Furthermore, >75% of people may take more than the recommended dietary allowance for vitamin A in the USA.…”