Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Institute of Biology, University of Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
BMC Public Health. 2022 Apr 29;22(1):863. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13261-2.
In the first years of their lives, children develop the cognitive, social and emotional skills that will provide the foundations for their lifelong health and achievements. To increase their life prospects and reduce the long-term effects of early aversive conditions, it is therefore crucial to understand the risk factors that negatively affect child development and the factors that are instead beneficial. In this study, we tested (i) the effects of different social and environmental stressors on maternal stress levels, (ii) the dynamic relationship between maternal stress and child behavior problems during development, and (iii) the potential promotive (i.e. main) or protective (i.e. buffering) effect of siblings on child behavior problems during development.
We used longitudinal data from 373 mother-child pairs (188 daughters, 185 sons) from pregnancy until 10 years of age. We assessed maternal stress and child behavior problems (internalizing and externalizing) with validated questionnaires, and then used linear mixed models, generalized linear mixed models and longitudinal cross-lagged models to analyze the data.
Our results showed that higher maternal stress levels were predicted by socio-environmental stressors (i.e. the lack of sufficient social areas in the neighborhood). Moreover, prenatal maternal stress reliably predicted the occurrence of behavior problems during childhood. Finally, the presence of older siblings had a promotive function, by reducing the likelihood that children developed externalizing problems.
Overall, our results confirm the negative effects that maternal stress during pregnancy may have on the offspring, and suggest an important main effect of older siblings in promoting a positive child development.
在生命的最初几年，儿童发展出认知、社会和情感技能，这些技能将为他们终身的健康和成就奠定基础。为了增加他们的生活前景，减少早期不良环境的长期影响，因此了解对儿童发展产生负面影响的风险因素和有益因素至关重要。在这项研究中，我们测试了：（i）不同的社会和环境压力源对母亲压力水平的影响；（ii）母亲压力与儿童发展过程中行为问题之间的动态关系；（iii）兄弟姐妹对儿童发展过程中行为问题的潜在促进（即主要）或保护（即缓冲）作用。
我们使用了 373 对母婴（188 名女儿，185 名儿子）从怀孕到 10 岁的纵向数据。我们使用经过验证的问卷评估了母亲的压力和儿童的行为问题（内化和外化），然后使用线性混合模型、广义线性混合模型和纵向交叉滞后模型来分析数据。
我们的结果表明，社会环境压力源（即邻里缺乏足够的社交区域）预测了更高的母亲压力水平。此外，产前母亲压力可靠地预测了儿童期行为问题的发生。最后，年长的兄弟姐妹具有促进作用，可以降低儿童出现外化问题的可能性。
总的来说，我们的结果证实了孕期母亲压力可能对后代产生的负面影响，并表明年长的兄弟姐妹在促进积极的儿童发展方面具有重要的主要作用。
