title: Maternal pre-pregnancy weight and externalising behaviour problems in preschool children: a UK-based twin study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the heritability of child behaviour problems and investigate the association between maternal pre-pregnancy overweight and child behaviour problems in a genetically sensitive design.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Twins and Multiple Births Association Heritability Study (TAMBAHS) is an online UK-wide volunteer-based study investigating the development of twins from birth until 5 years of age.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 443 (16% of the initial registered members) mothers answered questions on pre-pregnancy weight and their twins' internalising and externalising problems using the Child Behavior Checklist and correcting for important covariates including gestational age, twins' birth weight, age and sex, mother's educational level and smoking (before, during and after pregnancy).
  
  
  METHODS
  The heritability of behaviour problems and their association with maternal pre-pregnancy weight.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The genetic analysis suggested that genetic and common environmental factors account for most of the variation in externalising disorders (an ACE model was the most parsimonious with genetic factors (A) explaining 46% (95% CI 33% to 60%) of the variance, common environment (C) explaining 42% (95% CI 27% to 54%) and non-shared environmental factors (E) explaining 13% (95% CI 10% to 16%) of the variance. For internalising problems, a CE model was the most parsimonious model with the common environment explaining 51% (95% CI 44% to 58%) of the variance and non-shared environment explaining 49% (95% CI 42% to 56%) of the variance. Moreover, the regression analysis results suggested that children of overweight mothers showed a trend (OR=1.10, 95% CI 0.58% to 2.06) towards being more aggressive and exhibit externalising behaviours compared to children of normal weight mothers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Maternal pre-pregnancy weight may play a role in children's aggressive behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Evangelia E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Antoniou
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Heart of Birmingham Teaching PCT, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fowler
authors.affiliation: The Twins and Multiple Births Association (TAMBA), UK.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.affiliation: Institute of Child Health, University of Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: Taunton R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Southwood
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, UK.|Center for Autism Research, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: McCleery
authors.affiliation: Department of Complex Genetics, Cluster of Genetics and Cell Biology, NUTRIM School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maurice P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Zeegers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression; D001007:Anxiety; D001288:Attention; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013851:Thinness / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006113:United Kingdom