The relationship between maternal depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms during pregnancy and adult offspring behavioral and emotional problems.

BACKGROUND: Prenatal maternal depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms have been found to be associated with child and adolescent behavior problems. In this paper, we investigate their impact on behavior problems and depressive symptoms in adulthood. METHODS: Participants included 3,099 mother-offspring pairs from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), an Australian based, prebirth cohort study. We used latent class growth analysis (LCGA) with parallel processes to identify trajectories of maternal depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms over four time periods between the mothers' first clinic visit and 5 years postpregnancy. We fitted the estimates from the maternal trajectories in multivariate logistic regression models to predict internalizing and externalizing behavior at age 21. We adjusted for a wide range of prenatal and postnatal factors, including maternal life events, relationship quality, contact with the new born, as well as concurrent maternal depressive and anxious symptoms and father's history of mental health problem. RESULTS: LCGA found seven groups of mothers; one group of mothers exhibited high levels of depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms during pregnancy but not at later time points. Their offspring experienced increased levels of behavior problems and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This paper provides the first evidence that high levels of maternal subjective depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms experienced in early pregnancy may predict internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and depressive symptoms in young adults.

Substance use and mental health disorders are linked to different forms of intimate partner violence victimisation.

BACKGROUND: Substance and mental health disorders convey significant health burdens and impair interpersonal relationships. We tested associations between comorbid substance and mental health disorders and different forms of intimate partner violence (IPV) experienced by young adults. METHOD: Mothers (n = 6703) were recruited during pregnancy to the longitudinal Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy. Mother/offspring dyads were followed up from birth to 21 years. Offspring with complete psychiatric data at 21 years who reported having had an intimate partnership were included (n = 1781). Participants' experiences of psychological, physical and severe combined IPV were assessed at 21 years using a summarised form of the Composite Abuse Scale. We used the Composite International Diagnostic Interview to obtain lifetime diagnoses of mental health and substance disorders. Multivariable logistic regression models of each IPV form were adjusted for individual, family and neighbourhood factors during adolescence, and for other forms of IPV. RESULTS: We have shown specific links between different forms of IPV experienced and individual substance and mental health disorders. Mental health disorders were related to all three forms of IPV, while alcohol disorders were linked to psychological IPV (ORAUD = 1.86; 1.21-2.86) and illicit substance disorders to physical IPV (ORSUD = 2.07; 1.25-3.43). The co-occurrence of related disorders was strongly linked to psychological and physical IPV. CONCLUSIONS: Intimate partner violence was experienced by both men and women. Substance and mental health disorders were associated with specific forms of IPV victimisation, suggesting that screening IPV clients and mental health/substance disorder patients for the converse problems may be important for intervention planning.

Associations between self-reported symptoms of prenatal maternal infection and post-traumatic stress disorder in offspring: evidence from a prospective birth cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Consistent evidence has linked a range of prenatal maternal infections with psychotic disorders in later life. However, the potential for this exposure to impact more common disorders requires further investigation. METHODS: Participants came from the Mater University Study of pregnancy, a longitudinal, pre-birth cohort study which recruited pregnant mothers from a Brisbane hospital between 1981 and 1984. At age 21, 2439 offspring completed the CIDI-Auto. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate associations of self-reported symptoms of prenatal infection with a range of DSM-IV anxiety and affective diagnoses, while also testing for gender interactions. RESULTS: In multivariate analyses, self-reported symptoms of prenatal genital infection predicted Post-traumatic stress disorders (OR=2.38, 95% CI: 1.14, 4.95) and social phobias (OR=1.93, 95% CI: 1.03, 3.61), in addition to evidence for a gender interaction by which males (OR=6.04, 95% CI: 2.00, 18.30) but not females were at greater risk for PTSD. Further analyses among those with PTSD revealed the relationship to be stronger when excluding those not exposed to trauma (OR=3.21, 95% CI: 1.53, 6.72). LIMITATIONS: We were unable to clinically or serologically verify the presence and the type of prenatal genital infection. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to show an association between self-reported symptoms of prenatal genital infections and two highly prevalent anxiety disorders among adult offspring. The relationship with PTSD was particularly strong and suggested that the exposure may primarily impact PTSD in males. Further research with the capacity to assess a fuller-range of specific prenatal infections is warranted to evaluate the potential of reducing the prevalence of these disorders.

Generational changes in tobacco use by young women: a cross-generational analysis of mother-daughter dyads.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: Cross-generational evidence is needed to confirm the decline in young female smoking and to identify factors that impede cessation despite two decades of government intervention. DESIGN AND METHODS: Data are from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy, a cross-generational pre-birth cohort study beginning in 1981 in Australia. The sample comprised of 993 mother-daughter dyads, for which mothers were aged 18 ≤ 25 at the baseline measurement and their daughters were between the same ages when assessed 21 years later. We used multinomial logistic regression for clustered data to assess associations between four levels of cross-generationally measured mothers and daughters smoking in early adulthood, and assessed the role of education and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: The rate of smoking had declined substantially in the daughters' generation, with mothers having 5.77 (95% confidence interval 4.24, 8.09) and 2.04 (95% confidence interval 1.60, 2.64) times the odds of smoking at heavy and moderate levels, respectively. Smoking across the two cohorts was found to interact with education and depressive symptoms, such that daughters who did not complete secondary school or who had depressive symptoms were at greater risk of smoking than their mothers were 20 years earlier. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Over two generations of mothers and daughters, smoking prevalence and smoking intensity has declined, largely in line with findings from national surveys. The remaining smoking has concentrated heavily among those who did not complete secondary education, and there is evidence that increases in light smoking among the daughters may be related to depression.

Exposure to stressful life events during pregnancy predicts psychotic experiences via behaviour problems in childhood.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to stressful life events during pregnancy has been associated with later schizophrenia in offspring. We explore how prenatal stress and neurodevelopmental abnormalities in childhood associate to increase the risk of later psychotic experiences. METHODS: Participants from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), an Australian based, pre-birth cohort study were examined for lifetime DSM-IV positive psychotic experiences at 21 years by a semi-structured interview (n = 2227). Structural equation modelling suggested psychotic experiences were best represented with a bifactor model including a general psychosis factor and two group factors. We tested for an association between prenatal stressful life events with the psychotic experiences, and examined for potential moderation and mediation by behaviour problems and cognitive ability in childhood. RESULTS: Prenatal stressful life events predicted psychotic experiences indirectly via behaviour problems at child age five years, and this relationship was not confounded by maternal stressful life events at child age five. We found no statistical evidence for an interaction between prenatal stressful life events and behaviour problems or cognitive ability. CONCLUSION: The measurable effect of prenatal stressful life events on later psychotic experiences in offspring manifested as behaviour problems by age 5. By identifying early abnormal behavioural development as an intermediary, this finding further confirms the role of prenatal stress to later psychotic disorders.