Chen Ying-Jie, Strodl Esben, Hou Xiang-Yu, Wu Chuan-An, Chen Jing-Yi, Huang Li-Hua, Yin Xiao-Na, Wen Guo-Min, Sun Deng-Li, Xian Dan-Xia, Yang Gui-You, Chen Wei-Qing
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Psychol Health Med. 2023 Jul-Dec;28(8):2156-2168. doi: 10.1080/13548506.2022.2070226. Epub 2022 Apr 27.
A range of studies have shown that prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) exposure is associated with offspring autistic-like behaviors, however the potential pathways remain unexplored. This study aimed to evaluate the mediating role of parent-child interactions in early life in the association between PNMS exposure and preschoolers' autistic-like behaviors. Data from 65,928 child-parent dyads were obtained via a primary caregiver-reported questionnaire administered as part of the Longhua Child Cohort Study. To strengthen confidence in the reliability of the results, the analyses were initially conducted on a random selection of 70% of the total sample, and then validated on the remaining 30% of the sample. Analysis of covariance and multiple linear models were employed to estimate the associations between PNMS exposure, parent-child interactions in early life, and children's autistic-like behaviors. The results showed that PNMS exposure was positively associated with the presence of autistic-like behaviors at preschool age. The total indirect effect of the frequency of positive parent-child interactions in early life accounted for 9.69% or 8.99% of the variance of the association. Our findings indicate that parent-child interactions in early life might function as potential mediators of the association between PNMS and the increased risk of offspring autistic-like behaviors.
一系列研究表明，产前母亲压力（PNMS）暴露与后代自闭症样行为有关，然而潜在途径仍未得到探索。本研究旨在评估早期亲子互动在PNMS暴露与学龄前儿童自闭症样行为之间关联中的中介作用。通过作为龙华儿童队列研究一部分的主要照料者报告问卷，获得了来自65928对儿童-父母二元组的数据。为增强对结果可靠性的信心，分析最初在随机抽取的总样本的70%上进行，然后在其余30%的样本上进行验证。采用协方差分析和多元线性模型来估计PNMS暴露、早期亲子互动与儿童自闭症样行为之间的关联。结果表明，PNMS暴露与学龄前儿童自闭症样行为的存在呈正相关。早期积极亲子互动频率的总间接效应占该关联方差的9.69%或8.99%。我们的研究结果表明，早期亲子互动可能是PNMS与后代自闭症样行为风险增加之间关联的潜在中介因素。
