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Background: Early childhood developmental vulnerability has been closely related to the predictors of relatively good health, social and educational outcomes later in adulthood. However, the impacts of prenatal tobacco exposure on childhood developmental vulnerability have been rarely examined. Further, a few of the studies that have investigated maternal prenatal tobacco smoking and child developmental vulnerability have reported mixed results and there are currently no published estimates derived from causal epidemiological methods., Methods: We conducted a retrospective population-based cohort study on the association between maternal prenatal tobacco smoking and developmental vulnerability in children born in Western Australia (WA). De-identified individual-level maternal, infant and birth records were obtained from the Midwives Notification System (MNS), a statutory record of all births in WA. WA register for Developmental Anomalies (WARDA) were also obtained from the WA Data Linkage. Records on early childhood developmental vulnerability at the median age of 5 years were obtained from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). We used a doubly robust estimator to estimate the causal effects., Results: Complete data were available for 64,558 mothers-children's pairs. Approximately 16% of children were exposed to maternal prenatal tobacco smoking. Children exposed to maternal prenatal tobacco smoking were more likely to be classified as developmentally vulnerable/at-risk on the physical health and wellbeing (RR = 1.40, 95%CI:1.36-1.45), social competence (RR = 1.42, 95%CI: 1.38-1.47), emotional maturity (RR = 1.34, 95%CI:1.30-1.39), language and cognitive skills (RR = 1.50, 95%CI:1.45-1.54), and communication skills and general knowledge (RR = 1.37, 95%CI:1.33-1.42) domains., Conclusion: Maternal prenatal exposure to tobacco may influence early childhood developmental vulnerability. Early intervention to quit tobacco smoking before becoming pregnant could potentially reduce later childhood developmental vulnerability on multiple domains., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: This is the first study to investigate the longitudinal association between prenatal and perinatal psychiatric hospitalizations and academic achievements in adolescent offspring., Methods: We conducted an administrative health data-based cohort study of 168, 528 mother-offspring pairs using linked data obtained from health and educational registries in New South Wales, Australia. Prenatal and perinatal maternal psychiatric diagnosis was measured by using ICD-10. The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) was used to assess the educational performance of the offspring. Logistic regression model was used to explore the association. Multivariate models were adjusted for maternal sociodemographic characteristics such as age at birth, marital status, educational status, and occupational status, maternal diabetes and chronic hypertension, maternal smoking during pregnancy, birth weight, and language spoken at home., Results: The findings show that after adjusting for important covariates adolescent offspring of mothers with prenatal and perinatal psychiatric hospitalizations were more likely to perform below the national minimum standard in all domains of academic performance at age 14 years, when compared with the offspring of mothers without such hospitalizations, with the highest odds for numeracy (OR = 2.88; 95% CI: 2.50-3.31) followed by reading (OR = 2.08; 95% CI: 1.81-2.38), spelling (OR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.51-2.01), and writing (OR = 1.56; 95% CI: 1.34-1.80). There was significant gender interaction such that males were more likely to experience lower rates of academic performance than females in all academic domains. Lower academic achievements were observed among offspring of mothers with all major groupings of psychiatric disorders, with a higher risk for severe psychiatric disorders followed by mental disorders due to substance use or medical conditions., Conclusion: In sum, maternal prenatal and perinatal psychiatric hospitalizations are associated with lower academic achievements in adolescent offspring, with a stronger effect on the academic performance of male offspring. Early intervention strategies that aim to enhance educational performance in the exposed offspring are needed., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Objective: To quantify the changes in sleep duration over two generations of young adults., Methods: We used data from the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy cohort to compare sleep duration in mother and offspring. The analyses were restricted to 1,731 mothers who were young adults (mean age 21.96 years; SD±1.90) at the baseline measurement, and their offspring who were about the same age (mean age 20.6 years; SD±0.86) when assessed 21 years later. Maternal sleep was explored by asking the mother, during the first trimester, about her typical sleep duration prior to pregnancy, while offspring participants were asked about the sleep duration in the last month at the time assessed. Multinomial logistic regression for correlated responses was used to assess generational changes., Results: We found that offspring had 3.2 (2.7, 3.9) times the odds of sleeping for short duration (≤6 hours/night) and 1.7 (1.5, 1.9) times the odds of sleeping for a longer duration (≥9 hours/night) compared with their mothers. Gender-based analysis found that daughters had 3.0 (2.3, 5.0) times the odds of sleeping for a short duration, while sons had 3.4 (2.6, 6.4) times the odds of sleeping for a short duration compared with their mothers., Conclusions: There is a significant decline in sleep duration below recommendations as well as a substantial increase in long-duration above the recommendations over two generations of young adults. Therefore, the focus of sleep health should not be limited to short sleep, but on the need for achieving optimal sleep recommended for the age., (Copyright © 2019 National Sleep Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aims: To identify distinct trajectories of depression experienced by a population-based sample of women over a 27-year period and to assess the validity of the derived trajectories., Method: The Mater University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy is a birth cohort study which commenced in 1981. Women (N = 6753) were interviewed at their first clinic visit, at 6 months, then 5, 14, 21 and 27 years after the birth of their child, using the Delusions Symptoms - States Inventory. Some 3561 (52.7%) women were followed up at 27 years, with 3337 (49.4%) of the sample completing the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Depression trajectories over a 27-year period were identified using Latent Class Growth Modelling (LCGM). LCGM was used to identify respondents with similar patterns of depression over a 27-year period. At the 27-year follow-up women who completed the CIDI, were stratified according to their trajectory group membership., Results: Three trajectory groups, each with different life-course patterns of depression were identified. The low/no symptoms of depression trajectory group comprised 48.4% of women. The mid-depression group (41.7%) had a consistent pattern of occasional symptoms of depression. The high/escalating trajectory group comprised 9.9% of the women in the study. We then examined each trajectory group based on their completion of the CIDI at the 27-year follow-up. Using the CIDI, 27.0% of women in the study had met the DSM-IV criteria for lifetime ever depression by their mean age of 46.5 years. The responses to the CIDI differed greatly for each of the trajectory groups, suggesting that the trajectories validly reflect different life histories of depression. The high/escalating trajectory group had an earlier age of first onset, more frequent episodes, longer duration of each episode of depression and experienced higher levels of impairment for their episodes of depression. For the high symptoms trajectory group, clinically significant depression is estimated to be experienced by women almost one in every 6 days of their life., Conclusion: While symptoms of depression are commonly experienced in a large community-based sample of women, a minority of women experience many episodes of depression in their lifetime. It is this group of women who are most impaired and should be of most concern, and who should be the main target of prevention and treatment initiatives.

Background/objectives: Increases in obesity in young adults over recent decades are shown by national survey data but have yet to be replicated using prospective data. We aim to quantify the increase in obesity and overweight over two generations of young adult women using prospective measures of body mass index (BMI)., Subjects/methods: Data are from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), a prospective pre-birth cohort study started in 1981 in Brisbane, Australia. Analyses were restricted to 992 mother-daughter dyads who were at similar ages at the time they were assessed and for whom measures of BMI were available. We also conducted an additional analysis to test whether there was a similar increase amongst father-son dyads. We used multinomial logistic regression for clustered data to compare the same prospective measures of BMI categories between mother and daughters., Results: Controlling for a number of sociodemographic and lifestyle factors in the female sample, daughters had 5.04 (3.03, 8.85) times the odds of being obese and 2.54 (1.86, 3.54) times the odds of being overweight compared with their mothers. A large increase in obesity was also observed in the male sample., Conclusions: Using a longitudinal design to partly account for familial confounding of obesity risk factors, this study confirms a large and concerning increases in obesity rates over two generations of young adults and suggests increases in obesity over the past 20 years may be greater than previously anticipated.

Objective: This study examined whether maternal psychological distress mediates the relationship between presence of adolescent asthma and number of physician visits and whether the association between maternal psychological distress and physician visits is moderated by adolescent general health., Methods: Data were obtained from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy and included 4025 adolescents. Path analysis was used to examine mediating and moderating effects., Results: Maternal psychological distress was found to partially mediate the relationship between adolescent asthma and number of physician visits, accounting for 25% of the effect of adolescent asthma on physician visits (p = 0.046). There was no evidence to suggest that adolescent general health moderated the association between maternal psychological distress and physician visits (p = 0.093)., Conclusions: These findings suggest that maternal psychological distress is associated with increased physician visits, regardless of adolescents' general health. Lowering maternal psychological distress may serve to reduce health care utilization and costs among adolescents with asthma.

Background: Prenatal maternal depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms have been found to be associated with child and adolescent behavior problems. In this paper, we investigate their impact on behavior problems and depressive symptoms in adulthood., Methods: Participants included 3,099 mother-offspring pairs from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), an Australian based, prebirth cohort study. We used latent class growth analysis (LCGA) with parallel processes to identify trajectories of maternal depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms over four time periods between the mothers' first clinic visit and 5 years postpregnancy. We fitted the estimates from the maternal trajectories in multivariate logistic regression models to predict internalizing and externalizing behavior at age 21. We adjusted for a wide range of prenatal and postnatal factors, including maternal life events, relationship quality, contact with the new born, as well as concurrent maternal depressive and anxious symptoms and father's history of mental health problem., Results: LCGA found seven groups of mothers; one group of mothers exhibited high levels of depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms during pregnancy but not at later time points. Their offspring experienced increased levels of behavior problems and depressive symptoms., Conclusions: This paper provides the first evidence that high levels of maternal subjective depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms experienced in early pregnancy may predict internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and depressive symptoms in young adults., (© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Introduction and Aims: Cross-generational evidence is needed to confirm the decline in young female smoking and to identify factors that impede cessation despite two decades of government intervention., Design and Methods: Data are from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy, a cross-generational pre-birth cohort study beginning in 1981 in Australia. The sample comprised of 993 mother-daughter dyads, for which mothers were aged 18 ≤ 25 at the baseline measurement and their daughters were between the same ages when assessed 21 years later. We used multinomial logistic regression for clustered data to assess associations between four levels of cross-generationally measured mothers and daughters smoking in early adulthood, and assessed the role of education and depressive symptoms., Results: The rate of smoking had declined substantially in the daughters' generation, with mothers having 5.77 (95% confidence interval 4.24, 8.09) and 2.04 (95% confidence interval 1.60, 2.64) times the odds of smoking at heavy and moderate levels, respectively. Smoking across the two cohorts was found to interact with education and depressive symptoms, such that daughters who did not complete secondary school or who had depressive symptoms were at greater risk of smoking than their mothers were 20 years earlier., Discussion and Conclusions: Over two generations of mothers and daughters, smoking prevalence and smoking intensity has declined, largely in line with findings from national surveys. The remaining smoking has concentrated heavily among those who did not complete secondary education, and there is evidence that increases in light smoking among the daughters may be related to depression., (© 2014 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.)

Importance: Increases in alcohol use in young women over recent decades are shown by national survey data but have yet to be replicated using prospective data., Objective: To compare change in alcohol use over a generation of young women born in Australia from 1981 to 1983 at 21 years with that of their mothers at the same age., Design, Setting, and Participants: Data came from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy, a prospective prebirth cohort study that recruited all pregnant mothers attending a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, from 1981 to 1983. The analyses were restricted to 1053 mothers who were aged 18 to 25 years of age at the baseline measurement and their daughters who were between the same ages when assessed 21 years later., Main Outcome and Measure: Assessing the increase in the same prospective measures of 4 levels of alcohol use between mothers and daughters., Results: Multinomial logistic regression for clustered data indicated daughters were at greater odds of consuming high (odds ratio [OR] = 5.68 [95% CI, 4.24-7.57]) and moderate (OR = 2.81 [95% CI, 2.18-3.63]) levels of alcohol than their mothers. Not having a dependent child roughly doubled the odds of all levels of drinking in both cohorts. Undertaking or completing tertiary education had no effect on consumption. There was an interaction between mothers' or daughters' drinking and partner status (χ23 = 12.56; P = .007); having a partner doubled the daughters' odds of consuming high levels of alcohol (no partner: OR = 0.51 [95% CI, 0.31-0.80]) while the odds of drinking at the highest level were more than 5 times for mothers who were single (OR = 5.65 [95% CI, 2.99-12.35])., Conclusions and Relevance: To our knowledge, we provide the first longitudinal evidence confirming that female alcohol use has dramatically increased over a generation, especially at higher levels of drinking. Later age at child bearing contributed to this increase and the relationship between alcohol use and having a partner was found to reverse alcohol consumption across the 2 generations.

Background: Studies have shown a link between maternal-prenatal mental health and offspring behavior problems. In this paper, we derived longitudinal trajectories of maternal depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms over early life to predict offspring behavior in adolescence., Methods: Participants included 3,925 mother-offspring pairs from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), an Australian-based, prebirth cohort study. Latent class growth analysis with parallel processes was used to identify trajectories of maternal depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms over four measurement periods between the mothers' first clinic visit and 5 years postpregnancy. The estimates from the maternal trajectories were used to fit multivariate logistic regression models and predict internalizing and externalizing behavior at age 14. We adjusted for a wide range of factors, including a number of prenatal confounders, concurrent maternal depressive and anxious symptoms, father's history of mental problems, and maternal life events relationship quality and contact with the new born., Results: Seven maternal trajectories were identified one of which isolated high levels of depressive, anxious, and stress symptoms during pregnancy. After adjustment for confounders, this was the only trajectory that predicted higher internalizing behavior in adolescence. No specific maternal trajectory predicted externalizing problems., Conclusions: We found evidence for a prenatal effect, whereby high levels of maternal depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms in early pregnancy uniquely increased the risk of internalizing behavior problems in adolescence., (© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Purpose: Marital conflict and/or marital breakdown are known pathways to the onset of depression. Few studies however have examined the possibility that depression can lead to a decrease in marital quality and an increase in marital breakdown. Depression may be an important pathway to a decline in martial quality., Methods: A birth cohort study with women (mothers) recruited early in pregnancy and followed for 21 years. Using repeated measures analysis for four waves of data collection we use GEE to examine the extent to which symptoms of depression predict subsequent poor martial quality in women and poor marital quality predicts subsequent depression., Results: A bidirectional association between poor marital quality and depression is observed. After removing those who had pre-existing poor marital quality we note that depression predicts subsequent poor martial quality. Similarly, we note that poor marital quality predicts subsequent depression. These associations are all statistically significant and of a similar magnitude., Conclusion: Over the maternal reproductive life course there is a long-term trajectory of reduced marital quality and increased depression. Maternal depression is as likely to lead to a decline in marital quality as poor martial quality is likely to lead to increased levels of depression. There may be a need to develop intervention programmes to reduce this long-term pattern of change.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine whether maternal factors such as socioeconomic status (SES), attitudes towards the baby, and mental health at 6 months or earlier, are associated with non-penetrative and penetrative childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in her offspring., Methods: This was a prospective birth cohort study followed up to 21 years. Set in one of two obstetric hospitals in Brisbane, Australia, the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP) involves a prospective birth cohort from a population based sample of 7223 singletons whose mothers were enrolled between 1981 and 1984 at the first antenatal visit. The present cohort consisted of 2664 participants who provided CSA data, and whose mothers had responded to all relevant questions., Results: About 16% of young adults reported non-penetrative sexual abuse before the age of sixteen and 9% reported penetrative abuse. After adjusting for all variables in the model, an increased risk for non-penetrative CSA was associated with the child being female, unwanted pregnancy, mother being a heavy smoker, and maternal anxiety. Increased risk for penetrative CSA was associated with the child being female, the mother having failed to complete a high school level education, living in an alternative arrangement other than marriage, and being either a moderate or heavy smoker. We found no associations between maternal age and CSA after correcting for other predictors., Conclusion: CSA was not uncommon in this cohort with one in four reporting some form of sexual abuse before 16. The results suggest that several early factors may predict later CSA and that the associations are different according to type of CSA.

Objective: This study examines the association between maternal anxiety from pregnancy to 5 years and child attention problems at 5 and 14 years., Method: Birth cohort of 3,982 individuals born in Brisbane between 1981 and 1983 are assessed. Self-reported measures of maternal anxiety are assessed at four time points. Maternal reports of child attention problems using Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist are assessed at 5 and 14 years., Results: Children of mothers experiencing anxiety during or after pregnancy are at greater risk of experiencing attention problems at 5 and 14 years. After adjusting for maternal age and child's gender, antenatal anxiety is strongly associated with persistent attention problems (OR = 3.65, 95% CI = 2.19, 6.07). Children with chronically anxious mothers are 5.67 (95% CI = 3.56, 9.03) times more likely to have persistent attention problems. These associations remain consistent after adjusting for potential confounders., Conclusions: Maternal anxiety appears to increase the rate of child attention problems and identifies a need for treatment programs to have a dual focus-the mother and her child.

Objective: To examine the prospective association between symptoms commonly experienced during pregnancy and the mental and general health status of women 14 years post partum., Methods: Data used were from the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy, a community-based prospective birth cohort study begun in Brisbane, Australia, in 1981. Logistic regression analyses were conducted., Results: Data were available for 5118 women. Women who experienced a higher burden of symptoms during pregnancy were at greater risk of becoming depressed and reporting poorer health status 14 years post partum. Women who experienced major problems during pregnancy were 4 times more likely to be depressed and nearly 8 times more likely to report poorer health status 14 years after the index pregnancy compared with women who experienced few problems., Conclusions: Findings suggest that pregnant women who experience common symptoms during pregnancy are likely to experience poorer mental and self-reported general health 14 years after the pregnancy.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine whether maternal attitudes to pregnancy and infant caregiving predict drinking initiation in adolescence., Method: Data were used from the Mater University Study of Pregnancy, an Australian longitudinal study of mothers and their children from pregnancy to when the children were 14 years. Logistic regression analyses examined whether maternal attitudes to pregnancy and infant caregiving at birth and 6 months contributed to the prediction of drinking initiation at age 14, after controlling for a range of confounding covariates., Results: Mother's negative feelings about being pregnant and not planning/wanting the pregnancy predicted adolescent alcohol initiation at the 14 year follow up. Negative maternal attitudes to infant caregiving at birth and 6 months did not predict adolescent alcohol initiation., Conclusions: Maternal attitudes in pregnancy are important and there is a need for effective perinatal interventions.

This 2006 study examined 1) whether maternal use of tobacco and consumption of alcohol when a child is 5 and 14 years of age predict cannabis use in young adults, and 2) whether this association is explained by possible confounding or mediating factors. Data were taken from a prospective birth cohort study of mothers and their children in Brisbane, Australia. This study was based on a cohort of 3,176 young adults who participated at the 21-year follow-up of the study and for whom data were available on maternal smoking and alcohol consumption 5 and 14 years after their birth. After controlling for possible confounders, the authors found that maternal smoking at 14 years was associated with frequent use of cannabis in offspring at 21 years, regardless of maternal smoking at 5 years. Children of mothers who drank more than one glass of alcohol at 5 years and continued at 14 years were more likely to use cannabis in early adulthood. The association between maternal substance use and offspring cannabis use was partially mediated by adolescent externalizing behavior and smoking measured at 14 years. Prevention programs that address maternal and adolescent tobacco use and adolescent externalizing behavior should be considered as strategies to reduce cannabis use by young adults.

Aims: To determine whether parental marital status and marital quality in adolescence are associated with cannabis use disorders in young adults., Design: Prospective birth cohort study., Setting: A 21-year follow-up of 4815 mothers and their children who participated at 14 years after the child's birth in Queensland, Australia., Participants: Cohort of 2303 young adults who completed the life-time version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-computerized version (CIDI-Auto) at the 21-year follow-up., Measurements: Young adults' cannabis use disorders were assessed using the CIDI-Auto. Marital status and quality (marital circumstances) and potential confounding factors such as socio-economic status (SES), maternal mental health and maternal substance use were measured when the child was 14 years of age., Findings: Marital circumstances of the mother when child was aged 14 years predicted risk of cannabis use disorders in their offspring. After adjustment for potential confounding factors, adolescents who grew up in step-father families were more likely to have cannabis use disorders in early adulthood and a moderate association was found for those children who experienced maternal marital disagreement [odds ratio (OR) = 1.7; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.0, 2.9]. There was no significant increase in subsequent risk of cannabis use disorders for children whose mothers were unpartnered at 14 years., Conclusions: Maternal marital status and marital quality are associated with young adults' subsequent cannabis use disorders. This association is independent of suspected confounding factors measured at 14 years. However, at least part of the association is explained by changes in marital status before 14 years.

Objective: To examine the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and the development of smoking behaviour patterns among young adult offspring., Method: Data were from the Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), a birth cohort of 7223 mothers and children enrolled in Brisbane, Australia, in 1981. The development of smoking behaviours (early or late onset, or combination of onset and prevalence patterns) among offspring at age 21 years with different patterns of maternal smoking (never smoked, smoked before or after pregnancy but not during pregnancy, or smoked during pregnancy) were compared. Maternal smoking information was derived from the prospectively collected data from the beginning of pregnancy until the child was 14 years of age. Analyses were restricted to the 3058 mothers and children whose smoking status was reported., Results: The proportion of young adults who smoked regularly, either with early onset or late onset, was greater among those whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy compared with those whose mothers had never smoked. The smoking patterns among those adolescent offspring whose mothers stopped smoking during pregnancy, but who then smoked at other times during the child's life, were similar to those whose mothers had never smoked. This association was robust to adjustment for a variety of potential covariates., Conclusions: The findings provide some evidence for a direct effect of maternal smoking in utero on the development of smoking behaviour patterns of offspring and provide yet another incentive to persuade pregnant women not to smoke.

Background: Relatively little is known about why almost half of young adults in Australia have used cannabis. Because the upwards trend in use of cannabis has been coincident with an increase in marital breakdown, this study examines the relationship between marital status, marital changes, and the onset of cannabis use., Methods: Data are from the Mater-University Study of Pregnancy (MUSP), a 21-year prospective study in Brisbane, Australia. The present study is based on the 3008 mothers and their children for whom there were complete follow-up data at 21 years. Outcomes were self-reported cannabis use at age 21 and early onset (before age 15) cannabis use as judged from a retrospective report obtained at 21 years. Analyses were conducted using multivariate binomial and multinomial logistic regression., Results: Change in maternal marital status when the child was aged between 5 and 14 years was significantly associated with increased risk of cannabis use [odds ratio (OR) = 1.7; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.4-2.0 for one or two marital changes and OR = 2.3; 95% CI 1.5-3.4 for three or more marital changes], after adjustment for a range of potential confounders., Conclusion: Experience of changes in maternal marital status in mid- to late-childhood is a significant predictor of subsequent and early use of cannabis by the child. This holds true even after allowing for certain possible causes and consequences of marital breakdown.

Aims: This study examines associations between maternal smoking and family, social or child risk factors when the child is aged 5 and adolescent smoking. The influence of mothers who smoke in pregnancy or continue to smoke at 14 years was also examined., Design: The Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy is a prospective cohort study., Participants: Participants included 8556 women enrolled between 1981 and 1984 at their first antenatal visit. Completed questionnaires were obtained for 7223 offspring, comprising the study birth cohort. Of the 7223 eligible children a total of 4541 had information on both maternal smoking when the child was aged 5 years and adolescent smoking at 14 years., Measurements: Measures included maternal smoking during pregnancy and when the child was aged 5 and 14 years, child smoking at 14 years, maternal alcohol use, child behaviour problems and social and demographic variables., Findings: Adolescent smoking was predicted by a risk score at 5 years involving maternal smoking and alcohol use, non-married status, having a partner who had ever been arrested, having four or more children in the household, and child aggression at 5 years. Continued maternal smoking from 5 to 14 years was associated strongly with adolescent smoking. There was also evidence that smoking in late pregnancy may exert an independent effect on adolescent smoking., Conclusions: The results suggest the possibility of a direct effect of prenatal smoking on adolescent smoking and highlight a set of environmental risk factors in the development of adolescent smoking. These risk factors may be used as early warning signs that intervention may be needed, and given the similarities with risk factors for other adverse childhood outcomes, the benefits of early intervention may extend beyond smoking to other problem behaviours. The possibility of being able to predict other disorders, because of these associations, also warrants further investigation.

There is conflicting evidence about the contribution of maternal depression and family adversity to depression experienced by offspring. Because maternal depression and family adversity are related, there is a need to determine how they independently contribute to offspring depression. Data are from a long-running prospective birth cohort study (Mater-University of Queensland Study of Pregnancy and its outcomes – MUSP). For this study some 2200 offspring were followed up at 30 years of age. We first examine the association between maternal depression and family adversity over the period from the pregnancy to the child reaching adulthood. Then we consider the extent to which maternal depression and family adversity trajectories over this period predict CIDI/DSM-IV episodes of depression in the offspring of these mothers at 30 years of age. We find a strong bi-directional association between maternal depression and family experiences of adverse life events over the entire period the child is at home. After adjustment, children reared in a family experiencing high levels of adverse life events are more likely to experience a lifetime ever DSM-IV diagnosis of depression, are more likely to have experienced multiple episodes of lifetime ever depression, and are more likely to report their first episode of depression was at a younger age. The findings suggest the association between maternal depression and offspring depression appears to be partly attributable to the higher levels of family adversity characteristic of depressed mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]