Personality and overweight in 6-12-year-old children.

BACKGROUND: Personality may be an important yet understudied influence on childhood obesity. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the association between children's personality traits and weight status in a sample of 1533 6-12 year olds. METHODS: Mothers rated their child's personality using the Norwegian Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children, and reported on their child's height and weight. RESULTS: Relative to their normal weight peers, overweight children were rated lower on energy, optimism, compliance, concentration, perseverance, and self-confidence, and higher on egocentricity, irritability, and anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest possible mechanisms to investigate in future research relating personality to childhood obesity.

Exploring causal pathways of child behavior and maternal mental health in families with a child with congenital heart disease: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: A congenital heart defect (CHD) can increase the risk of mental health problems in affected children and their parents. The extent to which risk factors for these problems are shared in families or are specific to the individual family member is unclear. METHOD: Prospective data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa; n = 93,009) were linked with a nationwide CHD registry, and 408 children with CHD were identified. Mothers' reports on child internalizing problems and their own distress were assessed by questionnaires at child ages 6, 18 and 36 months. A structural model was applied to distinguish between familial (shared) factors and individual-specific factors for mental health problems. RESULTS: CHD was a substantial risk factor for problems in children and their mothers at all time points. CHD contributed on average 31% and 39% to the variance in children's and mothers' problems respectively. Both shared familial and individual-specific factors unique to CHD families contributed to risk for mental health problems. Whereas individual-specific risk factors contributed to the stability of problems in mothers, the effect of these factors lasted only a short time in children. Mutual influences over time were found between the mother's and the child's mental health at 18 and 36 months. CONCLUSIONS: The burden of CHD in a child is shared between family members but is also specific to the individual. This study points to a need for both an individual and a family-based approach to provide psychological support to children with CHD and their parents.

Symptoms of communication and social impairment in toddlers with congenital heart defects.

BACKGROUND: With the advances in congenital cardiac surgery and medical management, mortality rates for congenital heart defects (CHD) have declined remarkably. As the number of CHD survivors have increased there is a growing focus on developmental morbidity. The objective of the current study is to compare symptoms of communication and social impairment in 18-month-old children with different severity of CHD with those of controls. METHOD: We linked prospective data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, with a nationwide medical CHD registry and identified 198 18-month-olds with CHD in a cohort of 47,692. Three groups of CHD were distinguished: mild/moderate (n= 122), severe (n= 54) and CHD with comorbidity (n= 22). Mothers reported on the child's communication and social skills by completing items from the Ages and Stages Questionnaire as part of the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. RESULTS: Children aged 18 months old with CHD differed significantly from controls in levels of symptoms of communication impairment (P≤ 0.0001) and social impairment (P≤ 0.0001). The largest differences were found in children with CHD and comorbidity. Children with severe CHD also showed higher levels of both symptoms of communication and social impairment. Children with mild/moderate CHD showed a small difference only in symptoms of communication impairment. CONCLUSION: Children with severe CHD and CHD with comorbidity show more symptoms of communication and social impairment compared with a large cohort at the age of 18 months. It is important to broaden the scope of inquiry to involve communication and social developmental domains.

Feeding infants with CHD with breast milk: Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the prevalence of breast milk feeding (BMF) of infants with congenital heart defects (CHD) during first 6 months of life, as compared with general population. DESIGN: The study is based on a subsample of the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study conducted by Norwegian Institute of Public Health. A total of 60,600 mothers completed a questionnaire about infant feeding at 6 months postpartum. Infants with moderate/severe CHD (n = 131) were identified using nationwide CHD registry. A group of infants with CHD with comorbidity was also defined (n = 65). BMF was classified as predominant, continued, or no BMF. Month to month feeding status was analysed by means of Cox regression analyses. RESULTS: Between child age 2-6 months, mothers of infants with CHD had a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.69 of weaning their child compared with mothers of controls. Mothers of infants with CHD with comorbidity weaned at an even faster rate (HR 3.54). At age 6 months, 9.9% of infants with CHD were fed with breast milk predominately, 64.1% continued to receive breast milk, and only 26% were fed no breast milk. For infants with CHD with comorbidity, corresponding percentages were 7.7%, 43.1% and 49.2%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Although CHD alone and particularly CHD with comorbidity increased risk that mothers wean earlier, a relatively high rate of continued breastfeeding was maintained. Future studies should investigate factors that support continued BMF even in the most severely affected children with CHD.

Mothers' negative affectivity during pregnancy and food choices for their infants.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to analyze whether maternal negative affectivity assessed in pregnancy is related with subsequent infant food choices. DESIGN: The study design was a cohort study. SUBJECTS: The subjects were mothers (N=37 919) and their infants participating in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. MEASUREMENTS: Maternal negative affectivity assessed prepartum (Hopkins Symptom Checklist 5 (SCL-5) at weeks 17 and 30 of pregnancy), introduction of solid foods by month 3 and feeding of sweet drinks by month 6 (by the reports of the mothers) were analyzed. RESULTS: Mothers with higher negative affectivity were 64% more likely (95% confidence interval 1.5-1.8) to feed sweet drinks by month 6, and 79% more likely (95% confidence interval 1.6-2.0) to introduce solid foods by month 3. These odds decreased to 41 and 30%, respectively, after adjusting for mother's age, body mass index (BMI) and education. CONCLUSION: The maternal trait of negative affectivity is an independent predictor of infant feeding practices that may be related with childhood weight gain, overweight and obesity.

Emotional reactivity in infants with congenital heart defects: findings from a large case-cohort study in Norway.

AIM: Advances in medical treatment in recent years have led to dramatically improved survival rates of children with severe congenital heart defects (CHD). However, very little is known about the psychological consequences for these children, particularly during and after the early period of invasive treatment. In this study, we investigated the extent to which the severity of the CHD affects the child's emotional reactivity at 6 months of age. METHOD: We linked prospective data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health with a nationwide medical CHD registry and identified 212 infants with CHD in a cohort of 61 299 infants. Mothers reported on their child's emotional reactivity at age 6 months by means of a standardized questionnaire. RESULTS: Infants with severe to moderate CHD had 60% higher odds for severe emotional reactivity (cut-off at the 85 percentile) compared with healthy infants, after controlling for important maternal and child confounders. CONCLUSION: Our study is the first to show elevated emotional reactivity in children with moderate to severe CHD, suggesting a need for special parental attention to soothe their distress. Follow-up studies will show whether this emotional reactivity is transient or an early marker of continuing emotional or behavioural problems.

Child and parental personality are associated with glycaemic control in Type 1 diabetes.

AIM: Little is known about the influence of the personality of the child and the personalities of the child's parents on glycaemic control in Type 1 diabetes. Our objective was to examine the extent to which glycaemic control is associated with the child's and the parents' stable personality traits, using the Big Five personality model as the basic framework. METHODS: Participants were 64 children (aged 6-16 years) with recent-onset Type 1 diabetes and their parents. Glycaemic control (HbA(1c)) was assessed at 6 months, 1 year and 2 years after diagnosis; personality was assessed at 4-6 weeks, 6 months and 1 year after diagnosis. Associations of personality with mean HbA(1c) over 2 years were examined. RESULTS: Children with better glycaemic control had a personality pattern of high Agreeableness, high Conscientiousness and low Neuroticism. Mothers of children with better glycaemic control showed a similar personality pattern, whereas the personality of the father was only marginally related to glycaemic control. Children's Conscientiousness and mothers' Agreeableness together predicted 18% of the variability in mean HbA(1c). All associations were unchanged when we controlled for child's age. CONCLUSIONS: Glycaemic control in the child was associated with the same child and maternal personality characteristics that influence treatment adherence, health-promoting behaviours and general adjustment in adult populations. In future, studies are needed to examine attitudinal and behavioural mediators of this relationship. It is suggested that attention to the personalities of the child and the mother can help to tailor diabetes education to the individual child.