Maternal stress, child behavior and the promotive role of older siblings

Abstract

Background: 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.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusions: 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.

Keywords: Child development; Maternal stress; Promotive factors; Protective factors; Risk factors; Siblings.

Fig. 1

Pictorial representation of the set-up, summarizing in black the moments in which data on maternal stress (PSQ questionnaire) and child behavior problems (SDQ and FBB-HKS questionnaires) were collected, and in grey the statistical analyses run (with arrows indicating generalized linear mixed models and linear mixed models, and the square indicating the longitudinal cross-lagged models). Generalized linear mixed models were used to assess the factors predicting maternal stress levels (Model 1), the link between maternal stress (i.e. prenatal and postnatal) and child behavior problems, and the potential promotive or protective effect of siblings on child behavior problems (Models 2 and 3). Longitudinal cross-lagged models were used to study the dynamic relationship between maternal stress and behavior problems during child development (i.e. in the three waves)

Fig. 2

Boxplots representing data distribution for A maternal stress levels, as assessed with the PSQ questionnaire during pregnancy and in the three waves (i.e. when the child was 7, 8 and 10 years old); and for B child behavior problems, as assessed with the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Fremdbeurteilungsbogen für hyperkinetische Störungen questionnaire (FBB-HKS), in the three waves. The horizontal ends of the boxes represent the upper and lower quartiles, and the ends of the whiskers represent the maximum and minimum indices, excluding outliers. Asterisks denote significant differences

Fig. 3

Graphical representation of the longitudinal cross-lagged model used in this study. Latent variables are represented in circles, and observed variables in rectangles. One-pointed arrows indicate directed relationships (factor loadings, regressions) and two-pointed arrows undirected ones (variance, covariance, error). BEH_T1, BEH_T2 and BEH_T3 stand for child behavior problems in waves 1, 2 and 3, respectively (i.e. when children were aged 7, 8 and 10 years). dBEH1 and dBEH2 represent changes of this variable across waves (i.e. from wave 1 to wave 2, and from wave 2 to wave 3, respectively). STR_T1, STR_T2 and STR_T3 stand for maternal stress levels in waves 1, 2 and 3, and dSTR1 and dSTR2 represent changes of this variable from wave 1 to wave 2, and from wave 2 to wave 3). SDQ and FBB-HKS stand for the two sets of observed measurements for child behavior problems (i.e. the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Fremdbeurteilungsbogen für hyperkinetische Störungen questionnaire). Estimates are reported for all the cross-domain parameters (i.e. linking maternal stress levels and child behavior problems) and the autocorrelation parameters (i.e. linking both variables to the same variable in the preceding wave), with asterisks denoting a significant relationship. Other values are omitted for visual clarity (Table S2 in Suppl. Material)