Separating Family-Level and Direct Exposure Effects of Smoking During Pregnancy on Offspring Externalizing Symptoms: Bridging the Behavior Genetic and Behavior Teratologic Divide.
Behav Genet
; 46(3): 389-402, 2016 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26581695
ABSTRACT
Maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSDP) has been robustly associated with externalizing problems and their developmental precursors in offspring in studies using behavioral teratologic designs (Wakschlag et al., Am J Public Health 92(6)966-974, 2002; Espy et al., Dev Psychol 47(1)153-169, 2011). In contrast, the use of behavior genetic approaches has shown that the effects commonly attributed to MSDP can be explained by family-level variables (D'Onofrio et al., Dev Psychopathol 20(01)139-164, 2008). Reconciling these conflicting findings requires integration of these study designs. We utilize longitudinal data on a preschool proband and his/her sibling from the Midwest Infant Development Study-Preschool (MIDS-P) to test for teratologic and family level effects of MSDP. We find considerable variation in prenatal smoking patterns both within and across pregnancies within families, indicating that binary smoking measures are not sufficiently capturing exposure. Structural equation models indicate that both conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms showed unique effects of MSDP over and above family level effects. Blending high quality exposure measurement with a within-family design suggests that it is premature to foreclose the possibility of a teratologic effect of MSDP on externalizing problems. Implications and recommendations for future studies are discussed.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
/
Family
/
Smoking
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Child Behavior Disorders
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Teratology
/
Genetics, Behavioral
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
Language:
En
Journal:
Behav Genet
Year:
2016
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States