ABSTRACT
O desenvolvimento infantil é um campo de estudo complexo e deve ser analisado de maneira integrada, considerando os contextos nos quais a criança está in-serida. A frequência a instituições de educação infantil (iei) é indicada pela literatura internacional como um facilitador dos domínios do desenvolvimento, contudo, não há consenso nos dados brasileiros já apresentados. Pontua-se que outras variáveis do ambiente doméstico, como dispor de brinquedos e materiais variados e o tempo de interação com a mãe, possam influenciar nes-sa relação. O objetivo do estudo é comparar crianças que frequentam ou não iei em relação aos domínios do desenvolvimento, considerando grupo etário, tipo de escola e variáveis do ambiente doméstico. Participa-ram 1.843 mães de crianças de quatro a 72 meses, que responderam a um questionário sociodemográfico e ao Inventário Dimensional de Avaliação do Desenvolvi-mento Infantil. Os resultados apontaram que crianças que não frequentam iei apresentaram melhores médias nos domínios Motricidade Ampla e Linguagem Recepti-va em faixas etárias específicas. Dispor de brinquedos e materiais variados e o tempo que a mãe empregava para brincadeiras com a criança demonstraram um impacto positivo em diferentes domínios do desenvolvimento, no entanto, não houve interação com a frequência à iei. Verificou-se que quanto mais horas a mãe dispõe para brincadeiras durante a semana, melhores são as médias alcançadas em diferentes domínios do desenvolvimento de crianças de iei públicas e privadas. Discute-se o papel da educação infantil no desenvolvimento integral da criança, especialmente sobre a qualidade das iei e a necessidade de práticas baseadas em evidências.
El desarrollo infantil es un campo de estudio complejo y debe ser analizado de forma integrada, consideran-do los contextos del niño. La literatura internacional señala a la asistencia a las instituciones de educación infantil (iei) como un facilitador de los dominios del desarrollo, pero, no hay consenso en los datos brasileños. Otras variables del ambiente doméstico, como tener juguetes y materiales diferentes, y el tiempo de interacción con la madre, podrían influir en esta relación. El objetivo del estudio es comparar a los niños que asisten o no a una iei en relación a los dominios de desarrollo, considerando grupo etario, tipo de es-cuela y variables del ambiente del hogar. Participaron 1.843 madres de niños de cuatro a 72 meses, quienes respondieron un cuestionario sociodemográfico y el Inventario Dimensional para la Evaluación del Desarrollo Infantil. Los niños que no asisten a una iei tienen mejores promedios en los dominios Motricidad Gruesa y Lenguaje Receptivo en grupos de edad específicos. Tener diferentes juguetes y materiales, y el tiempo que la madre dedicaba a jugar con el niño demostró un impacto positivo en diferentes dominios, pero, no hubo interacción con la asistencia a una iei. Mientras más horas tiene la madre para jugar durante la semana, mejores son los promedios en los diferentes dominios de desarrollo de los niños con iei pública y privada. Se discute el papel de la educación inicial en el desarrollo integral, especialmente la calidad de la iei y la necesidad de prácticas basadas en evidencias.
Child development is a complex field that should be ana-lyzed comprehensively, considering children's contexts. The international literature indicates attendance to child daycare institutions (cdi) as a facilitator for child development. However, there is no consensus regarding Brazilian data. Other variables of the child's domestic environment, such as having various toys and materials and the time of interaction with the mother, may influence this relationship. This study aimed to compare children attending or not attending cdi regarding developmental domains and considering age group, type of school, and do-mestic environment variables. A total of 1.843 mothers of children aged zero to 72 months participated, answer-ing a sociodemographic questionnaire and the In-ventário Dimensional de Avaliação do Desenvolvimento Infantil (idadi). The results showed that children who did not attend cdi had better averages in Gross Motor Skills and Receptive Language domains in specific age groups. Having a variety of toys and materials and the time the mother spends playing with the child had a positive impact on different developmental domains; however, there was no interaction with attending cdi. It was found that the more hours the mother played with the child during the week, the better the averages achieved in different domains of development for chil-dren attending public or private cdi. The role of early childhood education in integral child development is discussed, especially the quality of cdi and the need for evidence-based practices.
Subject(s)
Humans , Time , Child Development , Child Rearing , Growth and Development , Environment , Language , Literature , Age GroupsABSTRACT
Introduction: Prenatal growth impairment leads to higher preference for palatable foods in comparison to normal prenatal growth subjects, which can contribute to increased body fat mass and a higher risk for developing chronic diseases in small-for-gestational-age (SGA) individuals throughout life. This study aimed to investigate the effect of SGA on feeding behavior in children and adolescents, as well as resting-state connectivity between areas related to reward, self-control, and value determination, such as orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC), amygdala and dorsal striatum (DS). Methods: Caregivers and their offspring were recruited from two independent cohorts in Brazil (PROTAIA) and Canada (MAVAN). Both cohorts included anthropometric measurements, food choice tasks, and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Results: In the Brazilian sample (17 ± 0.28 years, n=70), 21.4% of adolescents were classified as SGA. They exhibited lower monetary-related expenditure to buy a snack compared to controls in the food choice test. Decreased functional connectivity (n=40) between left OFC and left DL-PFC; and between right OFC and: left amygdala, right DS, and left DS were observed in the Brazilian SGA participants. Canadian SGA participants (14.9%) had non-significant differences in comparison with controls in a food choice task at 4 years old ( ± 0.01, n=315). At a follow-up brain scan visit (10.21 ± 0.140 years, n=49), SGA participants (28.6%) exhibited higher connectivity between the left OFC and left DL-PFC, also higher connectivity between the left OFC and right DL-PFC. We did not observe significant anthropometric neither nutrients' intake differences between groups in both samples. Conclusions: Resting-state fMRI results showed that SGA individuals had altered connectivity between areas involved in encoding the subjective value for available goods and decision-making in both samples, which can pose them in disadvantage when facing food options daily. Over the years, the cumulative exposure to particular food cues together with the altered behavior towards food, such as food purchasing, as seen in the adolescent cohort, can play a role in the long-term risk for developing chronic non-communicable diseases.
Subject(s)
Feeding Behavior , Food Preferences , Adolescent , Canada , Humans , Phenotype , RewardABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: There is a critical need to monitor the development of children around the world, and in Brazil, this need is substantial since there is a paucity of assessment tools. This study aimed to describe the design and provide evidence of reliability and validity for the short version of the Dimensional Inventory for Child Development Assessment (IDADI-short). METHODS: A sample of 1,865 biological mothers of children aged 4-72 months (Mâ¯=â¯34.8, SDâ¯=â¯20.20) completed the IDADI to assess Cognitive, socio-emotional, Expressive, and Receptive Language and Communication, Fine and Gross Motor, and Adaptive Behavior development. The psychometric properties of a total of 118 subscales of IDADI were obtained and the IDADI-short age-specific scores were correlated with the original inventory, and criteria variables such as neurodevelopment diagnosis, socioeconomic status, and sex. RESULTS: Item Response Theory analysis, Cronbach's Alpha, and McDonald's Omega indicated excellent internal consistency and optimal participant discrimination after minor alterations. IDADI-short scores were strongly associated with the original inventory, with high sensibility and specificity precision for developmental delays. Significant associations with relevant criteria variables were also observed. CONCLUSION: Findings support the use of IDADI-short as a parental measure of young children's development.
Subject(s)
Child Development , Parents , Child , Child, Preschool , Humans , Psychometrics , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Recent studies with the mood rhythm instrument (MRhI) have shown that the presence of recurrent daily peaks in specific mood symptoms are significantly associated with increased risk of psychiatric disorders. Using a large sample collected in Brazil, Spain, and Canada, we aimed to analyze which MRhI items maintained good psychometric properties across cultures. As a secondary aim, we used network analysis to visualize the strength of the association between the MRhI items. METHODS: Adults (n = 1275) between 18-60 years old from Spain (n = 458), Brazil (n = 415), and Canada (n = 401) completed the MRhI and the self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ-20). Psychometric analyses followed three steps: Factor analysis, item response theory, and network analysis. RESULTS: The factor analysis indicated the retention of three factors that grouped the MRhI items into cognitive, somatic, and affective domains. The item response theory analysis suggested the exclusion of items that displayed a significant divergence in difficulty measures between countries. Finally, the network analysis revealed a structure where sleepiness plays a central role in connecting the three domains. These psychometric analyses enabled a psychometric-based refinement of the MRhI, where the 11 items with good properties across cultures were kept in a shorter, revised MRhI version (MRhI-r). LIMITATIONS: Participants were mainly university students and, as we did not conduct a formal clinical assessment, any potential correlations (beyond the validated SRQ) cannot be ascertained. CONCLUSIONS: The MRhI-r is a novel tool to investigate self-perceived rhythmicity of mood-related symptoms and behaviors, with good psychometric properties across multiple cultures.
ABSTRACT
Intellectual disability (ID) is a developmental disorder characterized by deficits in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5) defines adaptive functioning as a severity measure of ID. The availability of tests in the international context to assess this construct has increased in recent years. In Brazil, however, non-systematic assessment of adaptive functioning, such as through observation and interviews, still predominates. The Escala de Funcionamento Adaptativo para Deficiência Intelectual EFA-DI [Adaptive Functioning Scale for Intellectual Disabilities] is a new instrument developed in Brazil to assess the adaptive functioning of 7- to 15-year-old children and support the diagnosis of ID. This study's objectives were to investigate evidence of validity related to the EFA-DI's internal structure, criterion validity, and reliability. The psychometric analyses involved two statistical modeling types, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and item response theory analysis (IRT). These results highlight the EFA-DI scale's strong psychometric properties and support its use as a parental report measure of young children's adaptive functioning. Future studies will be conducted to develop norms of interpretation for the EFA-DI. This study is expected to contribute to the fields of psychological assessment and child development in Brazil.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment is often identified in individuals with bipolar disorder and is associated with their functional impairment. However, there is controversy surrounding potential classification methods for impairment in cognitive measures. OBJECTIVE: To examine the proportion of cognitive measures indicating impairment of attention, processing speed, memory, visuoconstructional abilities, and executive functions in individuals with bipolar disorder type I (euthymic) and healthy controls, using a strict criterion for defining impairment. METHODS: We gave 43 individuals with bipolar disorder type I and 17 healthy controls a comprehensive clinical and neuropsychological assessment. All scores were standardized using means and standard deviations according to age. Impaired performance in all cognitive measures was determined using a distribution-based threshold of z=±1645. The effects of the sociodemographic and clinical variables on cognitive performance were examined using multiple stepwise backward regression analyses. RESULTS: Clinically significant cognitive impairment was observed more frequently in the bipolar disorder group, compared to controls, on all measures. From participant factors, we found that level of education and number of manic episodes predicted variation in more cognitive measure scores. DISCUSSION: The use of population-based norms to standardize cognitive measures, and a strict criterion to define cognitive impairment, in individuals with bipolar disorder type 1 and healthy controls resulted in a prevalence of impairment in cognitive domains' frequencies of deficits that fell within the ranges previously reported in meta-analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically introducing population norms and a stringent cognitive impairment criterion can facilitate more accurate measures of cognitive impairment in individuals with bipolar disorder.
Subject(s)
Bipolar Disorder/complications , Bipolar Disorder/psychology , Cognitive Dysfunction/etiology , Neuropsychological Tests/standards , Adolescent , Adult , Case-Control Studies , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Young AdultABSTRACT
Variations in serotoninergic signaling have been related to behavioral outcomes. Alterations in the genome, such as DNA methylation and histone modifications, are affected by serotonin neurotransmission. The amygdala is an important brain region involved in emotional responses and impulsivity, which receives serotoninergic input. In addition, studies suggest that the serotonin transporter gene network may interact with the environment and influence the risk for psychiatric disorders. We propose to investigate whether/how interactions between the exposure to early life adversity and serotonin transporter gene network in the amygdala associate with behavioral disorders. We constructed a co-expression-based polygenic risk score (ePRS) reflecting variations in the function of the serotonin transporter gene network in the amygdala and investigated its interaction with postnatal adversity on attention problems in two independent cohorts from Canada and Singapore. We also described how interactions between ePRS-5-HTT and postnatal adversity exposure predict brain gray matter density and variation in DNA methylation across the genome. We observed that the expression-based polygenic risk score, reflecting the function of the amygdala 5-HTT gene network, interacts with postnatal adversity, to predict attention and hyperactivity problems across both cohorts. Also, both postnatal adversity score and amygdala ePRS-5-HTT score, as well as their interaction, were observed to be associated with variation in DNA methylation across the genome. Variations in gray matter density in brain regions linked to attentional processes were also correlated to our ePRS score. These results confirm that the amygdala 5-HTT gene network is strongly associated with ADHD-related behaviors, brain cortical density, and epigenetic changes in the context of adversity in young children.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Genetic polymorphisms of the dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) and perinatal complications associated with poor oxygenation are risk factors for attentional problems in childhood and may show interactive effects. METHODS: We created a novel expression-based polygenic risk score (ePRS) reflecting variations in the function of the DAT1 gene network (ePRS-DAT1) in the prefrontal cortex and explored the effects of its interaction with perinatal hypoxic-ischemic-associated conditions on cognitive flexibility and brain gray matter density in healthy children from two birth cohorts-MAVAN from Canada (n = 139 boys and girls) and GUSTO from Singapore (n = 312 boys and girls). RESULTS: A history of exposure to several perinatal hypoxic-ischemic-associated conditions was associated with impaired cognitive flexibility only in the high-ePRS group, suggesting that variation in the prefrontal cortex expression of genes involved in dopamine reuptake is associated with differences in this behavior. Interestingly, this result was observed in both ethnically distinct birth cohorts. Additionally, parallel independent component analysis (MAVAN cohort, n = 40 children) demonstrated relationships between single nucleotide polymorphism-based ePRS and gray matter density in areas involved in executive (cortical regions) and integrative (bilateral thalamus and putamen) functions, and these relationships differ in children from high and low exposure to hypoxic-ischemic-associated conditions. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reveal that the impact of conditions associated with hypoxia-ischemia on brain development and executive functions is moderated by genotypes associated with dopamine signaling in the prefrontal cortex. We discuss the potential impact of innovative genomic and environmental measures for the identification of children at high risk for impaired executive functions.