title: The Associations Between Pre- and Postnatal Maternal Symptoms of Distress and Preschooler's Symptoms of ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and Anxiety.
abstract: Objective:The objective of this article is to examine the associations between pre- and postnatal maternal distress and preschooler's symptoms of ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD), and anxiety, by timing and gender.Method:Children, aged 3.5 years (N= 1,195), recruited from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, were assessed with a semistructured parental psychiatric interview. Perinatal maternal symptoms of distress were assessed by Symptom Checklist (SCL-5); Poisson regression was used to examine the associations.Results:Mid-gestational maternal distress significantly increased the average number of child symptoms, ranging between 3.8% for ADHD hyperactive-impulsive (ADHD-HI) and 8.7% for anxiety. The combination of high maternal scores of distress both pre- and postnatally were associated with increased risk of child symptoms of anxiety (relative risk [RR] = 2.10; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.43, 3.07]), CD (RR = 1.83; 95% CI = [1.33, 2.51]), and ODD (RR = 1.30; 95% CI = [1.03, 1.64]), with minor sex differences.Conclusion:Maternal distress during mid-gestation was associated with ADHD, behavioral, and emotional symptoms in preschool children. Continued exposure into the postnatal period may further increase these risk associations .
authors.affiliation: Oslo University Hospital, Norway.|University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Bothild
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bendiksen
authors.affiliation: Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aase
authors.affiliation: Oslo University Hospital, Norway.|University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Lien My
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Diep
authors.affiliation: Aarhus University, Denmark.
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Svensson
authors.affiliation: Oslo University Hospital, Norway.|University of Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Svein
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Friis
authors.affiliation: Oslo University Hospital, Norway.
authors.forename: Pål
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zeiner
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000453:epidemiology; D019958:Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway; D011247:Pregnancy
keywords: ADHD; anxiety; behavioral problems; perinatal distress; preschoolers