IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i21p7921-d436314.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Smoking during Pregnancy on Severity and Directionality of Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms: A Genetically Informed Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Mikael O. Ekblad

    (Department of General Practice, Institute of Medicine, Turku University and Turku University Hospital, 20014 Turku, Finland)

  • Kristine Marceau

    (Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA)

  • Emily Rolan

    (Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA)

  • Rohan H. C. Palmer

    (Department of Psychology, Behavioral Genetics of Addiction Laboratory, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA)

  • Alexandre Todorov

    (Department of Psychiatry, Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110, USA)

  • Andrew C. Heath

    (Department of Psychiatry, Midwest Alcoholism Research Center, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO 63110, USA)

  • Valerie S. Knopik

    (Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA)

Abstract

The objective was to examine the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy (SDP) and (I) severity and (II) directionality of externalizing and internalizing symptoms in a sample of sibling pairs while rigorously controlling for familial confounds. The Missouri Mothers and Their Children Study is a family study (N = 173 families) with sibling pairs (aged 7 to 16 years) who are discordant for exposure to SDP. This sibling comparison study is designed to disentangle the effects of SDP from familial confounds. An SDP severity score was created for each child using a combination of SDP indicators (timing, duration, and amount). Principal component analysis of externalizing and internalizing behavior, assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher Report Form, was used to create symptom severity and directionality scores. The variance in severity and directionality scores was primarily a function of differences between siblings (71% and 85%, respectively) rather than differences across families (29% and 15%, respectively). The severity score that combines externalizing and internalizing symptom severity was not associated with SDP. However, a significant within-family effect of SDP on symptom directionality (b = 0.07, p = 0.04) was observed in the sibling comparison model. The positive directionality score indicates that SDP is associated with differentiation of symptoms towards externalizing rather than internalizing symptoms after controlling for familial confounds with a sibling comparison model. This supports a potentially causal relationship between SDP and externalizing behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Mikael O. Ekblad & Kristine Marceau & Emily Rolan & Rohan H. C. Palmer & Alexandre Todorov & Andrew C. Heath & Valerie S. Knopik, 2020. "The Effect of Smoking during Pregnancy on Severity and Directionality of Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms: A Genetically Informed Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-12, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7921-:d:436314
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7921/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/21/7921/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mikael O. Ekblad & Julie Blanc & Ivan Berlin, 2021. "Special Issue on the Effects of Prenatal Smoking/Nicotine Exposure on the Child’s Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-4, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:21:p:7921-:d:436314. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.