Trajectoires de difficultés psychologiques chez les enfants : apport des données de la cohorte EDEN

Abstract

Pregnancy circumstances and living conditions in early childhood – in particular in terms of parental health behaviors and mental health – are associated with children's developmental outcomes in the mid-term, which is illustrated by data of longitudinal cohort studies such as EDEN. In particular, data from the EDEN cohort study, which is set among children born in 2003–2006 and which are unique in France and rare internationally, show negative long-term effects of maternal smoking and unhealthy dietary patterns during pregnancy, and depression from pregnancy onwards, with regard to children's psychological development. However, access to a daycare center is positively related to children's emotional development, highlighting the importance of collective sources of social supports. Overall, these findings suggest an important role of pregnancy and early childhood living circumstances with regard to children's mid-term psychological development. The point of these data are not to stigmatize certain groups of the population but rather to shed light upon mechanisms underlying mental health risk and alert decision makers to the role of early life determinants with regard to long-term psychological health. Data collection procedures remain ongoing, and EDEN cohort data to come will enable testing the role of these characteristics early in life with regard to children's long-term mental health.