National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Psychol Med. 2013 Jun;43(6):1293-301. doi: 10.1017/S0033291712001997. Epub 2012 Sep 14.
Studies investigating early developmental factors in relation to psychopathology have mainly focused on schizophrenia. The personality dimension of neuroticism seems to be a general risk factor for psychopathology, but evidence on associations between early developmental precursors and personality traits is almost non-existent. This study is therefore the first to investigate associations between early motor developmental milestones and neuroticism in adulthood. Method Mothers of 9125 children of the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort recorded 12 developmental milestones during the child's first year of life. A subsample of the cohort comprising 1182 individuals participated in a follow-up when they were aged 20-34 years and were administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). Associations between motor developmental milestones and level of neuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism were analysed by multiple linear regression adjusting for for sex, single-mother status, parity, mother's age, father's age, parental social status and birth weight.
Among the 1182 participants with information on the EPQ, information on milestones was available for 968 participants. Infants who developed high levels of neuroticism as adults tended to sit without support, crawl, and walk with and without support significantly later than individuals with low levels of neuroticism (p values <0.05). These results remained significant after adjustment for the included covariates and for adult intelligence.
The findings are the first of their kind and suggest that delays in early motor development may not only characterize psychopathological disorders such as schizophrenia, but may also be associated with the personality dimension of neuroticism in adulthood.
研究表明，与精神病理学相关的早期发育因素主要集中在精神分裂症上。神经质的人格维度似乎是精神病理学的一个普遍风险因素，但关于早期发育前体与人格特质之间的关联证据几乎不存在。因此，本研究首次调查了成年期早期运动发育里程碑与神经质之间的关联。方法：哥本哈根围产期队列的 9125 名儿童的母亲在孩子生命的第一年记录了 12 项发育里程碑。该队列的一个子样本由 1182 名参与者组成，当他们 20-34 岁时参加了随访，并接受了艾森克人格问卷（EPQ）的测试。通过多元线性回归分析，调整性别、单亲家庭状况、生育次数、母亲年龄、父亲年龄、父母社会地位和出生体重等因素，分析运动发育里程碑与神经质、外向性和精神质水平之间的关系。结果：在 1182 名有 EPQ 信息的参与者中，有 968 名参与者有里程碑信息。成年后神经质水平较高的婴儿在无需支撑的情况下独坐、爬行和行走的时间明显晚于神经质水平较低的婴儿（p 值<0.05）。这些结果在调整了纳入的协变量和成人智力后仍然显著。结论：这些发现是同类研究中的首次发现，表明早期运动发育迟缓不仅可能是精神分裂症等精神病理学障碍的特征，还可能与成年期神经质的人格维度有关。
