The Role of Pre- and Postnatal Timing of Family Risk Factors on Child Behavior at 36 months

Abstract

Children growing up in disharmonious families with anxious/depressed mothers are at risk for emotional and behavioral difficulties, however whether these associations reflect postnatal environment, prenatal exposure, or an overall liability is still unclear. This study used prospectively collected data from 24,259 participants of the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Mothers reported on anxiety/depression and family disharmony twice in pregnancy and twice post pregnancy, as well as on their child’s physical aggression and crying behavior at age 36 months. First, results from an autoregressive cross-lagged model showed a substantial stability in both maternal anxiety/depression and family disharmony from pregnancy to 18 months postnatal, but there was no indication that family disharmony led to maternal anxiety/depression, or the other way around. Second, structural equation models further suggests that the main risk derived from an overall liability, that is, a lasting effect of family risks that spanned the two time periods.

Developmental pathways from prenatal tobacco and stress exposure to behavioral disinhibition

“…For instance, Fisher et al (2011) found that prenatal substance exposure predicted neurobehavioral disinhibition in adolescence, but that early cumulative adversity also showed unique, additive effects. Similarly, Bekkhus et al (2011) reported considerable stability (B = .86) in latent measures of pre- and postnatal maternal distress. There are conflicting findings as to whether prenatal, postnatal or cumulative effects are most important.…”

“…Similar to PTE, PSE has been linked to a higher likelihood of aggression, conduct disorder and ADHD in children and, more recently, to externalizing behavior in young adults (Talge et al 2007; Li et al 2010; Bekkhus et al 2011; Blair et al 2011; Glover 2011; Ronald et al 2011; Grizenko et al 2012; Class et al 2014; Betts et al 2015). In the Raine study, the number of maternal stressors experienced during pregnancy and PTE were two of the strongest predictors of psychiatric morbidity in early childhood, over and above several measures of postnatal psychosocial adversity (Robinson et al 2008, 2011).…”

Exposure to a natural disaster during pregnancy and young children’s behaviour: prenatal and postnatal pathways, and the role of maternal mind-mindedness

“…Postnatal environment. The experience of stress and distress during pregnancy shows considerable continuity to the postpartum period (Bekkhus, Rutter, Barker, & Borge, 2011;Clout & Brown, 2015;Grant, McMahon, & Austin, 2008), increasing risk for postnatal depression (Brock et al, 2015;Milgrom et al, 2008). Numerous studies have found evidence of an association between maternal depression symptoms during the postnatal period (Agnafors et al, 2016;Bagner, Pettit, Lewinsohn, & Seeley, 2010;Pemberton et al, 2010) and early childhood with adverse child behaviour (Bayer et al, 2011;Woolhouse, Gartland, Mensah, & Brown, 2015).…”

“…Maternal postnatal or concurrent mood may mediate the effects of a mother's emotional experience during pregnancy on child development. Maternal stress and distress shows a high level of stability from the prenatal to postnatal period (Bekkhus et al, 2011;Clout & Brown, 2015;Grant et al, 2008;Matthey, Barnett, Ungerer, & Waters, 2000), and the experience of stress during pregnancy is associated with increased maternal depressive symptoms post-birth (Brock et al, 2015;Milgrom et al, 2008;Qu et al, 2012). To determine the unique contribution of prenatal exposures to child outcomes, most PNMS studies control for maternal postnatal or concurrent mental health (Gutteling et al, 2005; O'Connor, Heron, Golding, et al, 2002), with few considering the possible mediating role of this postnatal environmental factor as mechanism by which PNMS may exert its effect on child development (Edwards & Hans, 2016).…”

“…Thus, it is critical that prenatal maternal stress ("PNMS") studies control for the confounding influence of maternal postnatal or concurrent mental health on child outcomes. More difficult to control in human research are the co-occurring risk factors common to both prenatal and postnatal maternal psychological functioning, such as family conflict (Bekkhus et al, 2011) and genetic vulnerability (King et al, 2012). Seeking to better isolate the effects of prenatal exposures from other risk factors, some studies have utilised a natural disaster methodology (King et al, 2012).…”