Prenatal maternal infections and children\u2019s socioemotional development: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Hildigunnur Anna Hall,Bonnie Auyeung,Aja Louise Murray,Lydia Gabriela Speyer

doi:10.1007/s00787-020-01644-y

Hildigunnur Anna Hall, Bonnie Auyeung + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-020-01644-y

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Abstract

Previous research suggests that prenatal maternal infections may be associated with increased odds of children having a neurodevelopmental disorder. However, little evidence exists on associations with broader child outcomes, especially subclinical symptoms. Participants were the N = 14,021 members of the population-representative UK Millennium Cohort Study. We examined associations between prenatal maternal infections, both maternal-reported and hospital-recorded, and children’s socioemotional development, using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at age three. Maternal-reported prenatal infections were associated with increased emotional symptoms, after adjusting for several potential confounds and covariates. Hospital-recorded prenatal infections were not associated with children’s socioemotional outcomes, after adjusting for potential confounding and covarying factors. Findings suggest that prenatal maternal infections, particularly those which the mothers remember months later, may be associated with increased emotional problems in early childhood. This emphasises the need for screening for and preventing infections during pregnancy. Further, the occurrence of prenatal infection indicates the potential need for early intervention for children’s emotional difficulties.

Highlights

Previous research has suggested that prenatal maternal infections may be associated with increased odds of children developing neurodevelopmental conditions, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) [for reviews, see 1, 2] and attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [3, 4]
We examine links between prenatal maternal infections and children’s socioemotional development at age three, measured by the parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) [20], a validated measure of emerging child mental health problems [21,22,23], in the UK representative Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)
Results from unadjusted linear regressions (Model 1) showed that maternal-reported prenatal infections were significantly associated with higher scores on the following scales: total difficulties, conduct problems, emotional symptoms, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems, but not prosocial behaviour, with which no association was found

Summary

Introduction

Previous research has suggested that prenatal maternal infections may be associated with increased odds of children developing neurodevelopmental conditions, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) [for reviews, see 1, 2] and attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [3, 4]. Additional study covariates selected on the basis of their potential relationship with children’s socioemotional development were child’s sex [36], child’s age at SDQ assessment, maternal prenatal smoking [37], harsh parenting [38], maternal history of psychiatric illness [39] and maternal postnatal psychological distress [40] These were included in order to estimate the unique contribution of infection during pregnancy, over and above other factors that may influence child socioemotional outcomes. All data wrangling and analysis were carried out in R [50] and RStudio [51]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

Compliance with ethical standards