Is Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy a Causal Environmental Risk Factor for Adolescent Antisocial Behavior? Testing Etiological Theories and Assumptions

Overview

Journal Psychol Med

Publisher Cambridge University Press

Specialty Psychology

Date 2011 Nov 17

PMID 22085725

Citations 20

Authors

B M DOnofrio

C A Van Hulle

J A Goodnight

P J Rathouz

B B Lahey

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Although many studies indicate that maternal smoking during pregnancy (SDP) is correlated with later offspring antisocial behavior (ASB), recent quasi-experimental studies suggest that background familial factors confound the association. The present study sought to test alternative etiological hypotheses using multiple indices of adolescent ASB, comparing differentially exposed siblings, and testing assumptions in the sibling-comparison design.

Method: The study examined the association between maternal SDP and adolescent-reported ASB, criminal convictions and membership in a group of individuals with early-starting and chronic ASB among 6066 offspring of women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a representative sample of women in the USA. The analyses controlled for statistical covariates and examined associations while comparing differentially exposed siblings.

Results: At the population level, each additional pack of cigarettes per day predicted greater mean adolescent-reported ASB symptoms [ratio of means 1.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08-1.22], odds of being in the top 10% of ASB [odds ratio (OR) 1.34, 95% CI 1.10-1.65], hazard of a criminal conviction [hazard ratio (HR) 1.51, 95% CI 1.34-1.68] and odds of chronic ASB (OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.25-1.99). SDP robustly predicted most assessments of ASB while controlling for measured covariates. When siblings exposed to differing levels of SDP were compared, however, all of the associations were attenuated and were not statistically significant: adolescent-reported mean ASB (ratio of means 0.86, 95% CI 0.74-1.01), high ASB (OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.41-1.12), criminal conviction (HR 0.98, 95% CI 0.66-1.44) and chronic ASB (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.46-1.38).

Conclusions: The results strongly suggest that familial factors account for the correlation between SDP and offspring adolescent ASB, rather than a putative causal environmental influence of SDP.

Citing Articles

Patterns of adverse childhood experiences and associations with prenatal substance use and poor infant outcomes in a multi-country cohort of mothers: a latent class analysis.

Hemady C, Speyer L, Murray A, Brown R, Meinck F, Fry D BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2022; 22(1):505.

PMID: 35733125 PMC: 9215006. DOI: 10.1186/s12884-022-04839-0.

Impact of prenatal exposure characterization on early risk detection: Methodologic insights for the HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) study.

Massey S, Allen N, Pool L, Miller E, Pouppirt N, Barch D Neurotoxicol Teratol. 2021; 88:107035.

PMID: 34606910 PMC: 8578417. DOI: 10.1016/j.ntt.2021.107035.

Using a cross-cohort comparison design to test the role of maternal smoking in pregnancy in child mental health and learning: evidence from two UK cohorts born four decades apart.

Sellers R, Warne N, Rice F, Langley K, Maughan B, Pickles A Int J Epidemiol. 2020; 49(2):390-399.

PMID: 32040173 PMC: 7266557. DOI: 10.1093/ije/dyaa001.

Developmental effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy on the human frontal cortex transcriptome.

Semick S, Collado-Torres L, Markunas C, Shin J, Deep-Soboslay A, Tao R Mol Psychiatry. 2018; 25(12):3267-3277.

PMID: 30131587 PMC: 6438764. DOI: 10.1038/s41380-018-0223-1.

Maternal smoking during pregnancy and offspring personality in childhood and adulthood.

Sutin A, Flynn H, Terracciano A J Pers. 2017; 86(4):652-664.

PMID: 28833118 PMC: 5817044. DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12342.

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