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Pregnancy Smoking and Childhood Conduct Problems: A Causal Association?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2002

Barbara Maughan ,
Colin Taylor, ,
Alan Taylor ,
Neville Butler  and
John Bynner
Barbara Maughan
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Colin Taylor,
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Alan Taylor
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, London, U.K.
Neville Butler
Affiliation:
International Centre for Child Studies, Bristol, U.K.
John Bynner
Affiliation:
Institute of Education, London, U.K.
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Abstract

Recent investigations have highlighted associations between maternal smoking in pregnancy and antisocial behaviour in offspring, and suggested the possibility of a causal effect. We used data from the 1970 British birth cohort study (BCS70) to examine these links in a large, population-based sample studied prospectively from birth to age 16. We found a strong dose-response relationship between the extent of pregnancy smoking and childhood-onset conduct problems, but no links with adolescent-onset antisocial behaviours. Effects on childhood-onset conduct problems were as marked for girls as for boys, and were robust to controls for a variety of social background factors and maternal characteristics. Controls for mothers' subsequent smoking history modified this picture, however, suggesting that the prime risks for early-onset conduct problems may be associated with persistent maternal smoking—or correlates of persistent smoking—rather than with pregnancy smoking per se.

Keywords

Conduct disorderdelinquencylongitudinal studiesprenatal smoking
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines , Volume 42 , Issue 8 , November 2001 , pp. 1021 - 1028
Copyright
© 2001 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry

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