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This study investigated the prospective links between sleep in infancy and preschoolers' cognitive performance. Mothers of 65 infants completed a sleep diary when infants were aged 1 year, and children completed two subscales of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence at 4 years, indexing general cognitive ability and complex executive functioning. Consistent with hypotheses, children getting higher proportions of their sleep at night as infants were found to perform better on executive functions, but did not show better general cognition. Relations held after controlling for family socioeconomic status and prior cognitive functioning. These findings suggest that the special importance of sleep for higher order cognition, documented among adults, may appear very early in life.

We examined maternal depression and maternal sensitivity as mediators of the association between maternal childhood adversity and her child's temperament in 239 mother–child dyads from a longitudinal, birth cohort study. We used an integrated measure of maternal childhood adversity that included the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Parental Bonding Index. Maternal depression was assessed with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale at 6 months postpartum. Maternal sensitivity was assessed with the Ainsworth maternal sensitivity scales at 6 months. A measure of “negative emotionality/behavioral dysregulation” was derived from the Early Childhood Behaviour Questionnaire administered at 36 months. Bootstrapping-based mediation analyses revealed that maternal depression mediated the effect of maternal childhood adversity on offspring negative emotionality/behavioral dysregulation (95% confidence interval [0.026, 0.144]). We also found a serial, indirect effect of maternal childhood adversity on child negative emotionality/behavioral mediated first by maternal depression and then by maternal sensitivity (95% confidence interval [0.031, 0.156]). Results suggest the intergenerational transmission of the effects of maternal childhood adversity to the offspring occurs through a two-step, serial pathway, involving maternal depression and maternal sensitivity.

Negative emotionality (NE) was evaluated as a candidate mechanism linking prenatal maternal affective symptoms and offspring internalizing problems during the preschool/early school age period. The participants were 335 mother–infant dyads from the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment project. A Confirmatory Bifactor Analysis (CFA) based on self-report measures of prenatal depression and pregnancy-specific anxiety generated a general factor representing overlapping symptoms of prenatal maternal psychopathology and four distinct symptom factors representing pregnancy-specific anxiety, negative affect, anhedonia and somatization. NE was rated by the mother at 18 and 36 months. CFA based on measures of father, mother, child-rated measures and a semistructured interview generated a general internalizing factor representing overlapping symptoms of child internalizing psychopathology accounting for the unique contribution of each informant. Path analyses revealed significant relationships among the general maternal affective psychopathology, the pregnancy- specific anxiety, and the child internalizing factors. Child NE mediated only the relationship between pregnancy-specific anxiety and the child internalizing factors. We highlighted the conditions in which prenatal maternal affective symptoms predicts child internalizing problems emerging early in development, including consideration of different mechanistic pathways for different maternal prenatal symptom presentations and child temperament.

Maternal antenatal depression strongly influences child mental health but with considerable inter-individual variation that is, in part, linked to genotype. The challenge is to effectively capture the genotypic influence. We outline a novel approach to describe genomic susceptibility to maternal antenatal depression focusing on child emotional/behavioral difficulties. Two cohorts provided measures of maternal depression, child genetic variation, and child mental health symptoms. We constructed a conventional polygenic risk score (PRS) for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (PRSADHD) that significantly moderated the association between maternal antenatal depression and internalizing problems at 60 months (p = 2.94 × 10−4, R2 = .18). We then constructed an interaction PRS (xPRS) based on a subset of those single nucleotide polymorphisms from the PRSADHD that most accounted for the moderation of the association between maternal antenatal depression and child outcome. The interaction between maternal antenatal depression and this xPRS accounted for a larger proportion of the variance in child emotional/behavioral problems than models based on any PRSADHD (p = 5.50 × 10−9, R2 = .27), with similar findings in the replication cohort. The xPRS was significantly enriched for genes involved in neuronal development and synaptic function. Our study illustrates a novel approach to the study of genotypic moderation on the impact of maternal antenatal depression on child mental health and highlights the utility of the xPRS approach. These findings advance our understanding of individual differences in the developmental origins of mental health.

Prenatal maternal depression and a multilocus genetic profile of two susceptibility genes implicated in the stress response were examined in an interaction model predicting negative emotionality in the first 3 years. In 179 mother–infant dyads from the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability, and Neurodevelopment cohort, prenatal depression (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depressions Scale) was assessed at 24 to 36 weeks. The multilocus genetic profile score consisted of the number of susceptibility alleles from the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region gene (5-HTTLPR): no long-rs25531(A) (LA: short/short, short/long-rs25531(G) [LG], or LG/LG] vs. any LA) and the dopamine receptor D4 gene (six to eight repeats vs. two to five repeats). Negative emotionality was extracted from the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire—Revised at 3 and 6 months and the Early Child Behavior Questionnaire at 18 and 36 months. Mixed and confirmatory regression analyses indicated that prenatal depression and the multilocus genetic profile interacted to predict negative emotionality from 3 to 36 months. The results were characterized by a differential susceptibility model at 3 and 6 months and by a diathesis–stress model at 36 months.

Research in developmental psychology is increasingly showing that children's biology, cognition, and social relationships, which have often been studied separately, are in fact closely tied and influence each other in complex ways. This article summarizes work by our team and others on the connections among young children's sleep, their executive functioning, and the quality of their caregiving relationships. Overall, children exposed to higher-quality parenting perform better on executive tasks and get sleep of higher quality or duration. In turn, sleep relates to subsequent executive performance, while also modulating the links between parenting and child outcomes. We propose directions for future research to address causal relations and to better pinpoint the direction and magnitude of the associations between these areas of child development.

Animal and human studies suggest that parenting style is transmitted from one generation to the next. The hypotheses of this study were that (1) a mother’s rearing experiences (G1) would predict her own parenting resources (G2) and (2) current maternal mood, motivation to care for her offspring, and relationship with her parents would underlie this association. In a subsample of 201 first-time mothers participating in the longitudinal Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment project, we assessed a mother’s own childhood maltreatment and rearing experiences (G1) using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Parental Bonding Instrument. At 6 months postpartum, mothers completed questionnaires on parenting stress (G2), symptoms of depression, maternal motivation, and current relationship with their own parents. The sample consisted of mostly high socioeconomic status mothers recruited from Montréal (n = 135) or Hamilton (n = 66), Canada, with an age range from 18 to 43 years (M = 29.41, SD = 4.85 years). More severe maltreatment and less supportive rearing by the mother’s parents (G1) predicted increased parenting stress at 6 months (G2). These associations were mediated through distinct psychosocial pathways: maltreatment (G1) on parenting stress (G2) through symptoms of depression (Z = 2.297; p = .022); maternal rearing (G1) on parenting stress (G2) through maternal motivation (Z = −2.155; p = .031) and symptoms of depression (Z = −1.842; p = .065); and paternal rearing (G1) on parenting stress (G2) through current relationship with the father (Z = −2.617; p = .009). Maternal rearing experiences predict a mother’s own parenting resources though distinct psychosocial pathways, including depressed mood, maternal motivation, and social support.

Introduction Several psychosocial factors contribute to the etiology of sleep bruxism in childhood, including emotional-behavioral problems, as well as environmental and familial factors. It is known that sleep bruxism is prevalent in preschoolers, but most etiology studies were conducted with school-aged children or adolescents. Studies focusing on younger, preschool-aged populations that consider family-related factors are lacking. This study aimed to assess the relationship between emotional-behavioral problems and the presence of sleep bruxism in preschoolers, while taking maternal depressive symptoms into consideration. Methods Three hundred eighty-three mother-child dyads from the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability, and Neurodevelopment (MAVAN) cohort were included in the present study. Mothers completed the Child’s Sleep Habits Questionnaires (CSHQ; includes the frequency of bruxism), a questionnaire about their child’s emotional-behavioral problems (CBCL; anxiety and depressive problems), and reported their own depressive symptoms (CES-D). Measures were completed at two timepoints: when children were 4 and 5 years old. Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) models were used to evaluate the relationship between sleep bruxism frequency and children’s emotional-behavioral problems, while controlling for maternal depressive symptoms, child’s biological sex, family socioeconomic status, and age. Results Maternal reports indicated that 12% of children experienced sleep bruxism at least sometimes at age four, and 20% did at age five. Children’s anxiety and depressive symptoms were associated with increased sleep bruxism frequency (p < 0.05). Associations between children’s emotional-behavioral problems and bruxism remained statistically significant when controlling for maternal depressive symptoms, child’s biological sex, family socioeconomic status, and time (p < 0.05). Conclusion In this normative cohort of children, sleep bruxism was associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms in children as young as age four. Furthermore, this relationship can still be observed when the severity of maternal depressive symptoms is considered. Whether anxiety and depressive symptoms contribute to sleep bruxism, or vice versa, remain to be further investigated. Nevertheless, results suggest that screening of emotional-behavioral problems should be considered in children experiencing sleep bruxism. Support (if any) Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé

Introduction Sleep terrors are nocturnal episodes characterized by screams, cries, and confusion lasting a few seconds to a few minutes. This parasomnia is especially prevalent in toddlers and has been associated with separation anxiety. While sleepiness and reduced sleep quality have been reported in adults with sleep terrors, it is unclear whether this holds true in children. The objectives of this study were to investigate whether sleep terrors were associated with sleep latency, duration and fragmentation, and emotional-behavioral problems. Methods Participants were children from the Maternal Adversity Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment longitudinal cohort (N=509). Maternal reports were used to assess the presence or absence of sleep terrors and sleep habits (sleep latency, total nocturnal sleep duration, consecutive hours of sleep) when children were 12, 18, 24, and 36 months old. Internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed at 48 months with the Children Behavioral Checklist (maternal report). Results Sleep terrors were reported in 21% of 12 months old children, 16% of 18 months old, 20% of 24 months old, and 19% of 36 months old. Results from a generalized estimating equation model showed that, while controlling for total nocturnal sleep duration, the presence of sleep terrors in children was associated with longer sleep latency (p<0.05), and less consecutive hours of nocturnal sleep (p<0.05). Sleep terrors were also associated with increased internalizing and externalizing problems (p<0.05). Conclusion The frequency of sleep terrors in our sample was similar to what is reported in the literature. Toddlers presenting sleep terrors had a more fragmented sleep, i.e. longer latency and less nocturnal sleep consolidation. It is not yet clear whether sleep terrors lead to increased sleep fragmentation, or whether they are triggered by fragmented sleep. Present results also suggest that sleep terror might represent an early sign of emotional-behavioral problems in toddlers. Support (If Any) CIHR, Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health

In light of evidence suggesting that maternal adaptation may impact early child emotional development, this study investigated the interactive effects of maternal psychosocial maladjustment and maternal sensitivity on child internalizing symptoms, with the aim of investigating the potentially protective function of maternal sensitivity. Families (N=71 to 106 across measures, with gender spread almost evenly: number of boys=31 to 51 across measures) took part in four assessments between child ages 1 and 3 years. Mothers completed measures of parental stress, psychological distress, and marital satisfaction when their children were between 12 and 15 months. A composite score of maternal psychosocial maladjustment was derived from these measures. Maternal sensitivity was rated by trained observers at 12 months following a home visit. Child internalizing symptoms were assessed by both parents when the child was 2 and 3 years old. Hierarchical regressions revealed that increased maternal psychosocial maladjustment was related to more internalizing symptoms in children, however only among children of less sensitive mothers. In contrast, children of more sensitive mothers appeared to be protected. This was observed with maternal reports at 2 years, and both maternal and paternal reports at 3 years. These results suggest that young children may be differentially affected by their parents' emotional adjustment, while highlighting the pivotal protective role of maternal sensitivity in this process.