Maternal Psychological Problems During Pregnancy and Child Externalizing Problems: Moderated Mediation Model with Child Self-regulated Compliance and Polygenic Risk Scores for Aggression

Mannan Luo,Charlotte A M Cecil,Rianne Kok,Philip Jansen,Irene Pappa,Marinus H Van Ijzendoorn

doi:10.1007/s10578-021-01154-1

Abstract

A potential pathway underlying the association between prenatal exposure to maternal psychological problems and childhood externalizing problems is child self-regulation. This prospective study (N = 687) examined whether self-regulated compliance mediates the relation between maternal affective problems and hostility during pregnancy and childhood externalizing problems, and explored moderation by child polygenic risk scores for aggression and sex. Self-regulated compliance at age 3 was observed in mother–child interactions, and externalizing problems at age 6 were reported by mothers and teachers. Polygenic risk scores were calculated based on a genome-wide association study of aggressive behavior. Self-regulated compliance mediated the associations between maternal psychological problems and externalizing problems. Aggression PRS was associated with higher externalizing problems reported by mothers. No evidence was found of moderation by aggression PRS or sex. These findings support the hypothesis that maternal psychological problems during pregnancy might influence externalizing problems through early self-regulation, regardless of child genetic susceptibility or sex.

Highlights

Poor self-regulation in childhood has been implicated in a variety of maladaptive outcomes [1], including externalizing problems in childhood and adolescence [2, 3]
We examine whether child self-regulated compliance mediates the association between prenatal psychological problems and child externalizing problems, accounting for the potential moderating effect of child genetic susceptibility and sex
We found that children of mothers struggling prenatally with psychological problems showed lower levels of self-regulated compliance at age 3, which in turn were related to higher levels of externalizing problems at age 6

Summary

Introduction

Poor self-regulation in childhood has been implicated in a variety of maladaptive outcomes [1], including externalizing problems in childhood and adolescence [2, 3]. Despite prenatal exposure to maternal affective problems (i.e., depression and anxiety) has been linked to both childhood regulatory difficulties [7,8,9,10] and externalizing problems [11,12,13,14,15,16], little research to date has investigated how child self-regulation may help explain externalizing outcomes associated with maternal psychological problems in pregnancy. Previous studies have largely investigated the effect of postnatal maternal factors, such as parenting behavior on child self-regulated compliance [17, 18]. The PFC is implicated in behavioral self-regulation processes, such as executive attention and inhibitory control [25, 26]. As a consequence, these children might show more emotional and/or behavioral problems later in life

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