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Pregnancy Smoking and Childhood Conduct Problems: A Causal Association?
Author(s) -
Maughan Barbara,
Taylor Colin,
Taylor Alan,
Butler Neville,
Bynner John
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/1469-7610.00800
Subject(s) - pregnancy , psychology , offspring , association (psychology) , developmental psychology , population , cohort study , causality (physics) , conduct disorder , cohort , psychiatry , medicine , environmental health , genetics , physics , pathology , quantum mechanics , psychotherapist , biology
Recent investigations have highlighted associations between maternal smoking in pregnancy and antisocial behaviour in offspring, and suggested the possibility of a causal effect. We used data from the 1970 British birth cohort study (BCS70) to examine these links in a large, population‐based sample studied prospectively from birth to age 16. We found a strong dose‐response relationship between the extent of pregnancy smoking and childhood‐onset conduct problems, but no links with adolescent‐onset antisocial behaviours. Effects on childhood‐onset conduct problems were as marked for girls as for boys, and were robust to controls for a variety of social background factors and maternal characteristics. Controls for mothers’ subsequent smoking history modified this picture, however, suggesting that the prime risks for early‐onset conduct problems may be associated with persistent maternal smoking—or correlates of persistent smoking—rather than with pregnancy smoking per se.