Browsing by Subject "eksternalisoivat oireet"

Objectives. Prenatal maternal health and lifestyle choices are known risk factors for later child development, but mental risk factors such as prenatal stress are less known. There are estimates that about a half of all mental disorders begin by the age of 14, but the trajectory of developmental psychopathology can extend to a much earlier period, possibly even to the fetal period. The main objective of this review is to examine the association between prenatal maternal stress and childhood externalizing symptoms defined as conduct problems and hyperactivity. Additionally, it aims to find out which mechanisms explain this possible association. Methods. Information retrieval was conducted from two databases, Ovid Medline and PubMed. The keywords were prenatal stress, offspring externalizing symptoms, hyperactivity and conduct problems. Ten original research articles were found. These articles were published between 2005-2019 and examined two- to 12-year-old children. Results and conclusions. The results of the articles consistently indicate that prenatal maternal stress was associated with childhood behavioral problems and hyperactivity. This association remained after controlling for other prenatal risk factors. Possible mechanisms to explain this association were mother’s risen cortisol levels and children’s amygdala size. However, one article found the association between prenatal stress and childhood externalizing symptoms to exist only indirectly through hostile parenting, postnatal stress and children’s negative affectivity. The amount of stress experienced and the timing of stress during pregnancy had contradictory results on developing externalizing symptoms. Multiple stressors experienced simultaneously during pregnancy seems to be significant to developing symptoms and stress during the first half of pregnancy seemed to be more significant than stress during the latter half. Also, the association between prenatal stress and hyperactivity seems to be emphasized in boys. More research is needed on the mechanisms that explain the association between prenatal stress and externalizing symptoms in order to utilize information in prevention and intervention.