Antenatal anxiety, parenting and behavioural/emotional problems in children

Abstract

Comments on an article by T. O'Connor et al (see record 200213724-009) regarding maternal antenatal anxiety and behavioral/emotional problems at 4 years. It is argued that O'Connor et al have not included any measures of parenting. This is of concern because there is now a substantial body of evidence to indicate a clear association between parenting and child emotional and behavioral problems. IT is argued that it seems likely that parenting practices would not be adequately controlled for through the use of a socio-economic covariate owing to the fact that, although parenting practices are influenced by social and cultural factors such as class, on of the most extensive epidemiological studies of childhood psychiatric disorders showed that social class was a poor predictor of child adjustment. It is suggested that it seems likely that parenting exerts an independent effect on child outcomes such as emotional and behavioral adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved) antenatal maternal anxiety; behavior problems; anxiety; depression; psychosocial risk; behavioral development