Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemParental personality and early life ecology: a prospective cohort study from preconception to postpartum(NATURE PORTFOLIO, 2023-02-27)Personality reliably predicts life outcomes ranging from social and material resources to mental health and interpersonal capacities. However, little is known about the potential intergenerational impact of parent personality prior to offspring conception on family resources and child development across the first thousand days of life. We analysed data from the Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (665 parents, 1030 infants; est. 1992), a two-generation study with prospective assessment of preconception background factors in parental adolescence, preconception personality traits in young adulthood (agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, and openness), and multiple parental resources and infant characteristics in pregnancy and after the birth of their child. After adjusting for pre-exposure confounders, both maternal and paternal preconception personality traits were associated with numerous parental resources and attributes in pregnancy and postpartum, as well as with infant biobehavioural characteristics. Effect sizes ranged from small to moderate when considering parent personality traits as continuous exposures, and from small to large when considering personality traits as binary exposures. Young adult personality, well before offspring conception, is associated with the perinatal household social and financial context, parental mental health, parenting style and self-efficacy, and temperamental characteristics of offspring. These are pivotal aspects of early life development that ultimately predict a child's long-term health and development.
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ItemData Resource Profile: Melbourne Children's LifeCourse initiative (LifeCourse)(OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2022-10-13)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableMaternal mental health and infant emotional reactivity: a 20-year two-cohort study of preconception and perinatal exposures(CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2020-04)BACKGROUND: Maternal mental health during pregnancy and postpartum predicts later emotional and behavioural problems in children. Even though most perinatal mental health problems begin before pregnancy, the consequences of preconception maternal mental health for children's early emotional development have not been prospectively studied. METHODS: We used data from two prospective Australian intergenerational cohorts, with 756 women assessed repeatedly for mental health problems before pregnancy between age 13 and 29 years, and during pregnancy and at 1 year postpartum for 1231 subsequent pregnancies. Offspring infant emotional reactivity, an early indicator of differential sensitivity denoting increased risk of emotional problems under adversity, was assessed at 1 year postpartum. RESULTS: Thirty-seven percent of infants born to mothers with persistent preconception mental health problems were categorised as high in emotional reactivity, compared to 23% born to mothers without preconception history (adjusted OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.4-3.1). Ante- and postnatal maternal depressive symptoms were similarly associated with infant emotional reactivity, but these perinatal associations reduced somewhat after adjustment for prior exposure. Causal mediation analysis further showed that 88% of the preconception risk was a direct effect, not mediated by perinatal exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal preconception mental health problems predict infant emotional reactivity, independently of maternal perinatal mental health; while associations between perinatal depressive symptoms and infant reactivity are partially explained by prior exposure. Findings suggest that processes shaping early vulnerability for later mental disorders arise well before conception. There is an emerging case for expanding developmental theories and trialling preventive interventions in the years before pregnancy.
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ItemLongitudinal prediction of periconception alcohol use: a 20-year prospective cohort study across adolescence, young adulthood and pregnancy(WILEY, 2022-02)BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Alcohol consumption is common in adolescence and young adulthood and may continue into pregnancy, posing serious risk to early fetal development. We examine the frequency of periconception alcohol use (prior to pregnancy awareness) and the extent to which adolescent and young adult alcohol use prospectively predict periconception use. DESIGN: A longitudinal, population-based study. SETTING: Victoria, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 289 women in trimester three of pregnancy (age 29-35 years; 388 pregnancies). MEASURES: The main exposures were binge [≥ 4.0 standard drinks (SDs)/day] and frequent (≥ 3 days/week) drinking in adolescence (mean age = 14.9-17.4 years) and young adulthood (mean age 20.7-29.1 years). Outcomes were frequency (≥ 3 days/week, ≥ monthly, never) and quantity (≥ 4.0 SDs, ≥ 0.5 and < 4.0 SDs, none) of periconception drinking. FINDINGS: Alcohol use was common in young adulthood prior to pregnancy (72%) and in the early weeks of pregnancy (76%). The proportions drinking on most days and binge drinking were similar at both points. Reflecting a high degree of continuity in alcohol use behaviours, most women who drank periconceptionally had an earlier history of frequent (77%) and/or binge (85%) drinking throughout the adolescent or young adult years. Young adult binge drinking prospectively predicted periconception drinking quantity [odds ratio (OR) = 3.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.9-7.4], compared with women with no prior history. Similarly, frequent young adult drinking prospectively predicted frequent periconception drinking (OR = 30.7, 95% CI = 12.3-76.7). CONCLUSIONS: Women who engage in risky (i.e. frequent and binge) drinking in their adolescent and young adult years are more likely to report risky drinking in early pregnancy prior to pregnancy recognition than women with no prior history of risky drinking.
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ItemAlcohol and parenthood: An integrative analysis of the effects of transition to parenthood in three Australasian cohorts(ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD, 2019-04-01)AIMS: To determine the extent to which the transition to parenthood protects against heavy and problematic alcohol consumption in young men and women. DESIGN: Integrated participant-level data analysis from three population-based prospective Australasian cohort studies. SETTING: General community; participants from the Australian Temperament Study, the Christchurch Health and Development Study, and the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study. MEASUREMENTS: Recent binge drinking, alcohol abuse/dependence and number of standard drinks consumed per occasion. FINDINGS: 4015 participants (2151 females; 54%) were assessed on four occasions between ages 21 and 35. Compared to women with children aged <12 months, women who had not transitioned to parenthood were more likely to meet the criteria for alcohol abuse/dependence (fully adjusted risk ratio [RR] 3.5; 95% CI 1.5-7.9) and to report recent binge drinking (RR 3.0; 95% CI 2.1-4.3). The proportion of women meeting the criteria for alcohol abuse/dependence and/or binge drinking increased with the age of participants' youngest child, as did the mean number of standard drinks consumed on each occasion (1.8 if the youngest child was <1 year of age vs. 3.6 for 5+ years of age). Associations between parenthood and male drinking behaviour were considerably weaker. CONCLUSIONS: For most women in their twenties and thirties, parenting a child <1 year of age was associated with reduced alcohol consumption. However, this protective effect diminished after 12 months with drinking levels close to pre-parenthood levels after five years. There was little change in male drinking with the transition to parenthood.