Ontogeny of emotional and behavioral problems in a low-income, Mexican American sample.

Abstract

Clinically meaningful behavior problems are thought to be present beginning in the early toddler years, yet few studies have investigated correlates of behavior problems assessed before age 2 years. The current study investigated the direct and interactive contributions of early infant and caregiver characteristics thought to play an important role in the ontogeny of behavior problems. Specifically, the study examined: (a) the links between infant temperamental reactivity and toddler behavioral symptoms, (b) whether maternal sensitivity moderated associations between temperamental reactivity and behavioral symptoms, (c) whether variability in temperamental reactivity was explained by exposure to maternal stressful life events (SLEs) in utero, and (d) whether child sex moderated these pathways. Data were collected from 322 low-income, Mexican American families. Mother reports of SLEs were obtained between 23 and 40 weeks gestation; temperamental negativity and surgency at 6 weeks and 12 months; and internalizing and externalizing behaviors at 18 months. Maternal sensitivity during structured mother-infant interaction tasks at a 12-month visit was assessed by objective raters. Results indicated that significant paths linked maternal prenatal SLEs with 6-week negativity, 6-week negativity with 12-month negativity, and 12-month negativity with 18-month behavioral symptoms. Sex-specific effects were also observed. Maternal SLEs were directly associated with internalizing behaviors for girls only. Surgency and maternal sensitivity moderated the associations of negativity with subsequent externalizing behaviors for girls only. Results suggest that ecological stressors associated with sociodemographic risk factors such as low-income and ethnic minority status begin to exert cascades of influence on children’s developmental outcomes even before birth.

Infant Behavior and Competence Following Prenatal Exposure to a Natural Disaster: The QF2011 Queensland Flood Study

“…Elevated maternal stress hormones and other stress‐related physiological changes may affect fetal neurodevelopment directly or through epigenetic processes, impacting the structure and function of brain areas important to the developing stress response and future behavior (Bale, ; Charil, Laplante, Vaillancourt, & King, ; Glover, O'Connor, & O'Donnell, ; Monk, Spicer, & Champagne, ). In humans, prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) has been operationalized variably as psychological distress (e.g., pregnancy‐specific anxiety or depressive symptoms) or stressful life events (e.g., bereavement, daily hassles), with evidence of associations with increased emotional, behavioral, and social problems in childhood (Lahti et al., ; Lin, Crnic, Luecken, & Gonzales, ; O'Connor, Heron, Golding, Beveridge, & Glover, ; Robinson et al., ). Nevertheless, despite these associations, conjecture remains concerning the mechanisms and moderators of the influence of PNMS on infant and child outcomes.…”

“…Indeed, most studies examining the effects of PNMS on behavior during early childhood have done so using subjective measures of psychological stress and distress, such as symptoms of anxiety and depression or perceived impact of a life event (O'Connor, Heron, Golding, et al., ; Pickles, Sharp, Hellier, & Hill, ; Soe et al., ; Zhu et al., ). Studies finding an effect of more objective measures of PNMS (e.g., frequency of certain stressful life events) on child outcomes did not control for the appraisal or emotional distress associated with these experiences (Lin et al., ; Robinson et al., ; Ronald, Pennell, & Whitehouse, ). Furthermore, few studies have examined both aspects of the stress experience in the one cohort, and those that have sought to disentangle the objective from the subjective components of stress during pregnancy (Bergman, Sarkar, O'Connor, Modi, & Glover, ; Gutteling et al., ) have not yet identified a consistent pattern concerning the differential effects of these aspects of the stress experience, possibly due to their different measurement approaches.…”

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

“…While this hypothesis is supported by some studies of behaviour in young children (Lin et al, 2017;H. Sharp et al, 2015), a number of studies find specific or stronger PNMS effects on behaviour for boys (Loomans et al, 2011;Zhu et al, 2015).…”

“…where distress is expressed inwardly (i.e., anxiety and depressive problems) (V. E. Cosgrove et al, 2011;Krueger, 1999). A number of prospective cohort studies have found evidence of increased early childhood internalising problems following exposure to PNMS when assessed as a composite of prenatal maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, or global mental distress (de Bruijn, van Bakel, & van Baar, 2009;Kvalevaag et al, 2015), maternal anxiety (H. Sharp, Hill, Hellier, & Pickles, 2015) and frequency of stressful life events (Lin, Crnic, Luecken, & Gonzales, 2017;Robinson et al, 2008). Considering child anxiety symptoms separately using maternal interview, Bendiksen et al (2015) found increased risk of clinically significant problems in 3-year-old children of mothers reporting greater symptoms of maternal general distress prenatally.…”

“…Amniotic cortisol has been found to be correlated with prenatal testosterone (Sarkar, Sarkar, Bergman, Fisk, & O'Connor, 2007), which has been associated with increased fear reactivity in boys (Bergman, Glover, Sarkar, Abbott, & O'Connor, 2010). However, the nature of the relationship between PNMS and amniotic fluid testosterone is yet to be established (Auyeung, Baron-Cohen, Ashwin, & Knickmeyer, 2009;, and this theory does not explain studies finding greater effects of PNMS exposure for girls (Lin et al, 2017;H. Sharp et al, 2015).…”