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Moderate alcohol drinking in pregnancy increases risk for children's persistent conduct problems: causal effects in a Mendelian randomisation study.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Heavy alcohol use during pregnancy can cause considerable developmental problems for children, but effects of light-moderate drinking are uncertain. This study examined possible effects of moderate drinking in pregnancy on children's conduct problems using a Mendelian randomisation design to improve causal inference. METHODS:A prospective cohort study (ALSPAC) followed children from their mother's pregnancy to age 13 years. Analyses were based on 3,544 children whose mothers self-reported either not drinking alcohol during pregnancy or drinking up to six units per week without binge drinking. Children's conduct problem trajectories were classified as low risk, childhood-limited, adolescence-onset or early-onset-persistent, using six repeated measures of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire between ages 4-13 years. Variants of alcohol-metabolising genes in children were used to create an instrumental variable for Mendelian randomisation analysis. RESULTS:Children's genotype scores were associated with early-onset-persistent conduct problems (OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.04-1.60, p = .020) if mothers drank moderately in pregnancy, but not if mothers abstained from drinking (OR = 0.94, CI = 0.72-1.25, p = .688). Children's genotype scores did not predict childhood-limited or adolescence-onset conduct problems. CONCLUSIONS:This quasi-experimental study suggests that moderate alcohol drinking in pregnancy contributes to increased risk for children's early-onset-persistent conduct problems, but not childhood-limited or adolescence-onset conduct problems.

SUBMITTER: Murray J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4855628 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Moderate alcohol drinking in pregnancy increases risk for children's persistent conduct problems: causal effects in a Mendelian randomisation study.

Murray Joseph J Burgess Stephen S Zuccolo Luisa L Hickman Matthew M Gray Ron R Lewis Sarah J SJ

Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines 20151121 5

<h4>Background</h4>Heavy alcohol use during pregnancy can cause considerable developmental problems for children, but effects of light-moderate drinking are uncertain. This study examined possible effects of moderate drinking in pregnancy on children's conduct problems using a Mendelian randomisation design to improve causal inference.<h4>Methods</h4>A prospective cohort study (ALSPAC) followed children from their mother's pregnancy to age 13 years. Analyses were based on 3,544 children whose mo ...[more]

PMID: 26588883

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Project description:BackgroundSpecific programs are often implemented for specific child mental health problems, while many children suffer from comorbid problems. Ideally, programs reduce a wider range of mental health problems. The present study tested whether parenting programs for children's conduct problems, and which individual and clusters of program elements, have additional effects on children's emotional problems.MethodsWe updated the search of a previous systematic review in 11 databases (e.g., PsycINFO and MEDLINE) and included studies published until July 2020 with keywords relating to 'parenting', 'program', and 'child behavioral problems'. Also, we searched for recent trials in four trial registries and contacted protocol authors. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they used a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effects of a parenting program for children aged 2-10 years which was based on social learning theory and included a measure of children's emotional problems postintervention.ResultsWe identified 69 eligible trials (159 effect sizes; 6,240 families). Robust variance estimation showed that parenting programs had small significant parent-reported additional effects on emotional problems immediately postintervention (Cohen's d = -0.14; 95% CI, -0.21, -0.07), but these effects faded over time. Teachers and children did not report significant effects. Additional effects on emotional problems were larger in samples with clinical baseline levels of such problems. No individual program elements predicted larger additional effects. Of the clusters of elements, combining behavior management and relationship enhancement elements was most likely to yield the strongest additional effects.ConclusionsThe additional effects on emotional problems of parenting programs designed to reduce conduct problems are limited, but some clusters of elements predict larger effects. Our findings may contribute to realistic expectations of the benefits of parenting programs for children's conduct problems and inform the development of programs with wider benefits across mental health problems.

Dataset Information

Moderate alcohol drinking in pregnancy increases risk for children's persistent conduct problems: causal effects in a Mendelian randomisation study.

Publications

Moderate alcohol drinking in pregnancy increases risk for children's persistent conduct problems: causal effects in a Mendelian randomisation study.

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