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Prenatal maternal smoking, maternal offending, and offspring behavioural and cognitive outcomes in early childhood
Author(s) -
Tzoumakis Stacy,
Carr Vaughan J.,
Dean Kimberlie,
Laurens Kristin R.,
Kariuki Maina,
Harris Felicity,
Green Melissa J.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.2089
Subject(s) - offspring , pregnancy , cognition , population , psychology , medicine , demography , psychiatry , developmental psychology , environmental health , genetics , sociology , biology
Background Maternal smoking during pregnancy and parental offending are both linked to adverse offspring outcomes. Few studies have examined how these exposures together influence diverse offspring outcomes in early childhood. Aims To examine associations between quantity of prenatal maternal smoking and frequency of maternal offending and offspring behavioural and cognitive outcomes at age 5 years. Methods Over 66,000 Australian children (mean age 5.6 years) were drawn from an intergenerational data linkage study. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regressions were conducted for the two key exposures (maternal prenatal smoking and mother having at least two criminal convictions) and offspring behavioural and cognitive vulnerabilities. Population attributable fractions (PAFs) were also estimated for each outcome for the two exposures. Results Prenatal smoking and maternal offending were, separately and together, associated with most of the developmental vulnerabilities examined, even after adjusting for other familial and prenatal risk factors. PAFs for prenatal smoking ranged from 5.3% to 15.8%, and PAFs for maternal offending ranged from 3.4% to 11.8% across the offspring outcomes. Conclusions Maternal smoking during pregnancy and maternal offending were uniquely associated with a range of offspring vulnerabilities, but mothers who smoked during pregnancy tended to experience multiple problems that should also be considered as indicators of child vulnerabilities. While early behavioural difficulties were evident in these children, it was striking that they were also likely to have cognitive vulnerabilities. Early intervention to support cognitive development in these children may minimise their risk of academic underachievement, long‐term disadvantage, and even offending.