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Objective: To test the associations between the timing and chronicity of maternal depression symptoms (MDS) and children's long-term verbal abilities.Study Design: Participants were 1073 mother-child pairs from a population-based birth cohort in Canada. MDS were assessed at ages 5 months, 1.5, 3.5, and 5 years using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Verbal abilities were measured at 5, 6, and 10 years using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R). Multiple linear regression models were used to estimate the association between timing (early: 5 months and/or 1.5 years vs late 3.5 and/or 5 years) and chronicity (5 months, 1.5, 3.5, and 5 years) of exposure to elevated MDS and children's mean PPVT-R scores.Results: Children exposed to chronic MDS had lower PPVT-R scores than children never exposed (mean difference = 9.04 [95% CI = 2.28-15.80]), exposed early (10.08 [3.33-16.86]) and exposed late (8.69 [1.85-15.53]). There were no significant differences between scores of children in the early compared with the late exposure group. We adjusted for mother-child interactions, family functioning, socioeconomic status, PPVT-R administration language, child's birth order, and maternal IQ, psychopathology, education, native language, age at birth of child, and parenting practices. Maternal IQ, (η2 = 0.028), native language (η2 = 0.009), and MDS (η2 = 0.007) were the main predictors of children's verbal abilities.Conclusions: Exposure to chronic MDS in early childhood is associated with lower levels of verbal abilities in middle childhood. Further research is needed in larger community samples to test the association between MDS and children's long-term language skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maternal vitamin D insufficiency (plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] <75 nmol/L) may play a role in ethnic disparities in rates of preterm and spontaneous preterm births.Objective: We explored the relation between maternal plasma 25(OH)D concentration in the first trimester (8-14 wk of gestation) and the risk of preterm and spontaneous preterm births (<37 wk of gestation) by ethnicity.Methods: We designed a case-control study that included 120 cases of preterm birth (<37 wk of gestation) and 360 term controls (≥37 wk of gestation) of singleton pregnancies from the 3D cohort, a multicenter study in 2456 pregnant women in Quebec, Canada. Plasma 25(OH)D was measured by LC-mass spectrometry. We compared the distribution of vitamin D status between cases and controls for 8 ethnic minority subgroups. We explored the association between maternal plasma 25(OH)D concentration and preterm and spontaneous preterm births with the use of splines in logistic regression by ethnicity.Results: The distributions of maternal vitamin D status (<50, 50-75, and >75 nmol/L) were different in preterm and spontaneous preterm birth cases compared with controls but only in women of ethnic minority (P-trend = 0.003 and 0.024, respectively). Among ethnic subgroups, sub-Saharan Africans (P-trend = 0.030) and Arab-West Asians (P-trend = 0.045) showed an inverse relation between maternal vitamin D status and the risk of preterm birth. Maternal plasma 25(OH)D concentrations of 30 nmol/L were associated with 4.05 times the risk of preterm birth in the total ethnic minority population (95% CI: 1.16, 14.12; P = 0.028) relative to participants with a concentration of 75 nmol/L. In contrast, there was no such association among nonethnic women (OR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.48, 1.82; P = 0.85). There was no association when we considered only spontaneous preterm births in the total ethnic minority population (OR: 1.75; 95% CI: 0.39, 7.79; P = 0.46).Conclusion: Vitamin D insufficiency is associated with an increased risk of preterm birth in ethnic minority women in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the relation of gangliothalamic ovoid in the growth of internalizing problems on infancy. The method consists of measuring the gangliothalamic diameter, head circumference and ventricular volume through cranial ultrasounds and regression analysis of Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) given by parents. Moreover, findings show that smaller gangiothalamic ovoid was associated to CBCL but the ventricular volume is not consistently related with internalizing scores.

The article discusses a prospective study which investigates the association of childhood suicide ideation with negative mental health outcome in adulthood. It is indicated that the childhood suicide ideation was highly predictive of suicide ideation in adulthood and lifetime history of suicide attempt. It is observed that the childhood suicide ideation was associated with an increased likelihood of mood disorder and anxiety disorder in adulthood and to a lesser extent externalizing disorder. It is concluded that suicide ideation in childhood may be a stable characteristic with worrying consequences in adulthood.

Highlights • We reviewed ten studies reporting on child cortisol concentrations during the transition to formal schooling. • Most studies observed that this transition coincides with an increase in cortisol concentration in both saliva and hair. • Recovery could take as long as 3–6 months yet the functional significance of the rise in cortisol remains unknown. • Important individual differences were observed, with likely predictors including child temperament and maternal anxiety. • We provide 5 sets of methodological recommendations and guidance for future studies. Abstract This review examines the current state of knowledge regarding children's biological stress response during the transition from preschool to compulsory formal schooling, focusing on longitudinal studies that include repeated measures of cortisol concentrations in saliva or scalp hair. In all, eight independent studies (ten publications) were found and their results support the hypothesis that the transition from preschool to formal schooling coincides with an increase in cortisol concentration in both saliva and hair. Evidence of recovery (i.e. decrease in stress response over time) is more limited and suggests that it could take as many as 3–6 months before kindergarten children's cortisol concentration returns to baseline levels. However, important individual differences are observed. Potential predictors that have received some empirical support include child temperament (fearfulness/inhibition or surgency/extroversion) and prenatal maternal stress or anxiety. Very few studies, however, have examined whether there are actual functional consequences of individual differences in children's cortisol response associated with this transition. Finally, current methodological limitations and avenues for future studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Exposure to maternal depression during early childhood is a well-documented risk factor for offspring's internalizing problems, but the long-term risk and the psychosocial mechanisms underlying the association remain largely unknown. We examined whether maternal depression during early childhood was associated with offspring internalizing problems in adolescence, and the extent to which negative parenting, peer victimization, and poor friendship quality during middle childhood mediated this association.Method: We report on a population-based sample of children (n = 1,443) followed-up from 5 months to 15 years. We use yearly assessments of the exposure variable, that is, maternal depression (5 months to 5 years); the putative mediators, that is, peer victimization, friendship quality, and parenting practices (6-12 years); and assessment of the outcome variables at 15 years: self-reported major depressive (MD), generalized anxiety (GA), and social phobia (SP) symptoms. Structural equation modeling was used to test mediation by peer and family relationships.Results: Exposure to maternal depression during early childhood was associated with higher levels of adolescent MD, GA, and SP. Peer victimization was the only significant mediator and explained 35.9% of the association with adolescent MD, 22.1% of that with GA, and 22.1% of that with SP.Conclusion: Exposure to maternal depression prior to age 5 years was associated with depression, anxiety, and social phobia extending to adolescence via its impact on peer victimization during middle childhood. Particular attention should be paid to victimization as one potential psychosocial factor via which maternal depression is associated with adolescent internalizing problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A response by the authors to a letter to the editor about their article on childhood suicide thought and suicide attempt in adulthood is presented.

Background and Objectives: Depression has been associated with alterations in social functioning. Decoding and understanding others' mental states and adaptive reasoning are important for social functioning. This study examined theory of mind (ToM) and socio-moral reasoning (SMR) in adolescent girls with and without depression. Within the depression group, we examined associations between relevant clinical features (depression severity, anxiety symptoms and borderline personality traits) and ToM and SMR.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, whereby 43 adolescent girls (mean age = 16.19, SD = 1.24) meeting full or subthreshold criteria for depression and 40 adolescent girls (mean age = 15.44, SD = 1.24) with no psychiatric diagnosis were recruited. ToM was assessed using the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition; SMR was evaluated via the Socio-Moral Reasoning Aptitude Level task.Results: Analyses of covariance indicated that adolescents with depression did not differ from controls in ToM abilities but showed lower socio-maturity scores on the SMR task. This difference disappeared after controlling for the number of words used to justify responses. Amongst adolescents with depression, multiple linear regression analyses revealed that higher levels of borderline personality traits were associated with lower levels of mentalization (ToM task), and more severe depressive symptoms were associated with lower socio-moral maturity stages (SMR task) LIMITATIONS: Directional associations were not studied, and the sample included only girls.Conclusions: Findings may help to explain clinical heterogeneity in social cognitive functioning observed in individuals with depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]