Journal
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
Volume 53, Issue 2, Pages 130-135Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/S0006-3223(02)01477-4
Keywords
maternal smoking; boys Cd; familial transmission
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Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [MH62368, MH-57761-02, MH-55557, MH-45268] Funding Source: Medline
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Background: We undertook this study to determine whether the widely replicated link between maternal smoking and conduct disturbance (Cd) is better explained by a model of direct causation or of mother-offspring transmission of a latent Cd variable. Methods: Family data collected on 538 adolescent m,in boys from the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development (VTSABD) was used to compare two alternative models: 1) a model composed of a latent transmissible factor that influences mother's juvenile conduct symptoms, smoking during pregnancy, and subsequent Cd and smoking in her adolescent boys; and 2) a model specifying a direct causal path from mother's smoking to child Cd. Results: The maternal-offspring transmission model fit the data as well as a model specifying a direct causal path from maternal smoking to child Cd. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and boys' Cd symptoms may be attributed to the transmission of a latent Cd factor and not to a direct effect of the smoking. Our results challenge previous findings of a direct effect of prenatal smoke exposure on risk to Cd once other etiologic factors are considered. (C) 2003 Society of Biological Psychiatry.
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