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Do Antenatal and Postnatal Parental Psychological Distress, and Recognized Need of Help Predict Preadolescent’s Psychiatric Symptoms? The Finnish Family Competence Cohort Study

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Abstract

In a prospective population-based study, mothers and fathers of 1,247 children reported their physical and mental health during pregnancy, after delivery, within the child’s first 18 months of life, and at 12 years. Additionally, maternal health clinic nurses rated parents’ well-being and perceived need for support. At age 12, child outcomes were also measured using CBCL and YSR externalizing and internalizing scales. Results indicate that both ante- and postnatal maternal distress predicted future externalizing problems in offspring. Conversely, fathers’ postnatal distress predicted subsequent internalizing problems. Furthermore, mother’s depressed mood in the first trimester best predicted the child’s externalizing problems at age 12. Nurses’s ratings of mother’s antenatal and perinatal need for support, perinatal distress, and family’s need for support were associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems at age 12. Maternal antenatal distress increases the risk of offspring’s externalizing problems in preadolescense, and postnatal distress in either parent increases the risk of internalizing problems. Parental self-reports and indirect ratings from health care providers during pregnancy and infancy may therefore reliably recognize offspring at risk for subsequent psychiatric symptomatology.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, EVO financing (special subsidies from the government of Finland), and the Finnish Child Psychiatric Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Leena Pihlakoski & Andre Sourander

  2. Department of Public Health, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Leena Pihlakoski, Päivi Rautava & Matti Sillanpää

  3. Institute of Medicine, University of Tromsö, Tromsö, Norway

    Andre Sourander & John A. Rönning

  4. Turku City Hospital, Turku, Finland

    Minna Aromaa

  5. Department of Biostatistics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Hans Helenius

  6. Department of Child Neurology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Matti Sillanpää

Authors
  1. Leena Pihlakoski
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  2. Andre Sourander
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  3. Minna Aromaa
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  4. John A. Rönning
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  5. Päivi Rautava
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  6. Hans Helenius
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  7. Matti Sillanpää
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Correspondence to Andre Sourander.

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Pihlakoski, L., Sourander, A., Aromaa, M. et al. Do Antenatal and Postnatal Parental Psychological Distress, and Recognized Need of Help Predict Preadolescent’s Psychiatric Symptoms? The Finnish Family Competence Cohort Study. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 44, 305–319 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-012-0326-x

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