Prediction of 7-year psychopathology from mother-infant joint attention behaviours: a nested case-control study.

Clare S Allely,Helen Marwick,Alex Mcconnachie,Eva Kočovská,Philip Wilson,Jean Golding,Christopher Gillberg,Christine Puckering,Paul C D Johnson,Emma Lidstone

doi:10.1186/1471-2431-13-147

Abstract

BackgroundTo investigate whether later diagnosis of psychiatric disorder can be predicted from analysis of mother-infant joint attention (JA) behaviours in social-communicative interaction at 12 months.MethodUsing data from a large contemporary birth cohort, we examined 159 videos of a mother-infant interaction for joint attention behaviour when children were aged one year, sampled from within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort. Fifty-three of the videos involved infants who were later considered to have a psychiatric disorder at seven years and 106 were same aged controls. Psychopathologies included in the case group were disruptive behaviour disorders, oppositional-conduct disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, pervasive development disorder, anxiety and depressive disorders. Psychiatric diagnoses were obtained using the Development and Wellbeing Assessment when the children were seven years old.ResultsNone of the three JA behaviours (shared look rate, shared attention rate and shared attention intensity) showed a significant association with the primary outcome of case–control status. Only shared look rate predicted any of the exploratory sub-diagnosis outcomes and was found to be positively associated with later oppositional-conduct disorders (OR [95% CI]: 1.5 [1.0, 2.3]; p = 0.041).ConclusionsJA behaviours did not, in general, predict later psychopathology. However, shared look was positively associated with later oppositional-conduct disorders. This suggests that some features of JA may be early markers of later psychopathology. Further investigation will be required to determine whether any JA behaviours can be used to screen for families in need of intervention.

Highlights

To investigate whether later diagnosis of psychiatric disorder can be predicted from analysis of mother-infant joint attention (JA) behaviours in social-communicative interaction at 12 months
Further investigation will be required to determine whether any JA behaviours can be used to screen for families in need of intervention
Based on videoed caregiver-infant interactions from a large population-based birth cohort, we examined whether analysis of mother-infant joint attention behaviours in social-communicative interaction at 12 months are predictive of later diagnosis of psychopathology in the child at seven years of age

Summary

Introduction

To investigate whether later diagnosis of psychiatric disorder can be predicted from analysis of mother-infant joint attention (JA) behaviours in social-communicative interaction at 12 months. Joint attention (JA) is important in early interaction as it is a fundamental aspect of interpersonal connection in typical social communicative development, underpinning referential understanding, shared concepts and perspective taking abilities (the ability to relate to others) as well as contributing to concordant inter-subjectivity [1,2,3]. Since children who exhibit language development difficulties are at increased risk of behavioural and emotional disorders [21,22,23], infant JA skills may be associated with both language development and social behavioural development. A number of JA behaviours in infancy are signs of processes associated with self-monitoring, emotional reactivity and prosocial affiliative tendencies [24,25] which are behavioural dimensions found to be associated with the emergence of social competence in young children [26]

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