Social withdrawal at 1 year is associated with emotional and behavioural problems at 3 and 5 years: the Eden mother-child cohort study.
The objective of the study was to examine how social withdrawal in infants aged 12 months predicted emotional and behavioural problems at ages 3 and 5 years. The sample included 1,586 infants from the French Eden Mother-Child Cohort Study who had a measure of social withdrawal with the Alarm Distress BaBy scale at age 1 year; among these children, emotional and behavioural difficulties were rated by mothers using the Strength and Difficulty Questionnaire (SDQ) at 3 years for 1,257 (79 %) children and at 5 years for 1,123 (72 %) children. Social withdrawal behaviour at age 1 year was significantly associated with the SDQ behavioural disorder scale at 3 years, independently of a host of familial and child temperament confounders. The association with the relational disorder, prosocial and total difficulty scales was close to significance at 3 years after taking into account familial and temperament confounders. Social withdrawal significantly predicted the three aforementioned scales when measured at 5 years. No significant predictivity of the emotional scale and hyperactivity scale was detected at any age. This study made with a large longitudinal sample confirms the negative effects on development of social withdrawal behaviour, shedding light on the unfolding of behavioural disorders and relational difficulties in children; this calls for early detection of sustained social withdrawal behaviour, as it seems to hamper emotional development.
Hospital Bichat-Claude Bernard APHP, Inserm U669, University Denis Diderot Paris 7, Policlinique Ney, 124 blvd NEY, 75018, Paris, France, antoine.guedeney@bch.aphp.fr.
Antoine
A
Guedeney
Jean-Baptiste
JB
Pingault
Antoine
A
Thorr
Beatrice
B
Larroque
D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament