Maternal pre-pregnancy risk drinking and toddler behavior problems: the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study

Abstract

Maternal risk drinking may be a risk factor for child behavior problems even if the mother has discontinued this behavior. Whether pre-pregnancy risk drinking is an independent predictor of child behavior problems, or whether a potential effect may be explained by maternal alcohol use during and after pregnancy or other adverse maternal characteristics, is not known. Employing data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), longitudinal associations between maternal pre-pregnancy risk drinking and behavior problems in toddlers aged 18 and 36 months were examined. Included in the study was mothers answering MoBa questionnaires when the child was 18 (N = 56,682) and 36 months (N = 46,756), and who had responded to questions regarding pre-pregnancy risk drinking at gestation week 17/18, using the screening instrument T-ACE. Toddler behavior problems were measured with items from Child Behavior Checklist. Associations were analyzed with multivariate logistic regression, controlling for pre and postnatal alcohol use, as well as other relevant covariates. Pre-pregnancy risk drinking was associated with child behavior problems at 18 and 36 months, even after controlling for pre and postnatal alcohol use. Maternal ADHD and anxiety and depression were the only covariates that had any substantial impact on the associations. When all covariates were included in the model, the associations were weak for internalizing behavior problems and non-significant for externalizing behavior problems. Pre-pregnancy risk drinking may predict early development of behavior problems in the offspring. This increased risk may be due to other adverse maternal characteristics associated with risk drinking, in particular co-occurring maternal psychopathology.

Risk Factors for Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in the Preschool Years: Systematic Literature Review Based on the Child Behavior Checklist 1½–5

“…Studies related to substance abuse found that pre-pregnancy risk drinking (Knudsen et al 2014) increased IEP, methamphetamine use during pregnancy increases IEP ) and EP (Twomey et al 2013), tobacco exposure during pregnancy (Liu et al 2013) and maternal smoking during child preschool years increases IEP (Paterson et al 2013). One study reported non-significant results to the effect of methamphetamine exposure during pregnancy in EP (Liles et al 2012).…”

Maternal heavy alcohol use and toddler behavior problems: a fixed effects regression analysis

“…Several studies have reported associations between heavy maternal alcohol use and increased levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and lower social competence among school-age children [4–6], and adolescents and adults [7, 8]. Maternal risky alcohol use before [9] and during [10] pregnancy has also been linked to early development of behavior problems. However, in studies on toddlers and preschool children, the focus has primarily been on the impact of the father’s heavy alcohol use on toddler behavior problems [11–15].…”

Genetic Epidemiology and Insights into Interactive Genetic and Environmental Effects in Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Understanding roles of rare variants in ASD has highlighted the multifactorial etiology of NDDs characterized by pleiotropy (diverse phenotypes from identical genetic factors), genetic heterogeneity (different genes causing same phenotypes), and interactions: Epistasis (between genes) and gene-environment interactions (GxE) (2–10). Evidence also suggests that environmental factors lead to diverse phenotypes, depending upon the developmental timing of exposure (11–13). Research to disentangle this complexity requires strategies that specifically incorporate both genetic and environmental factors.…”