2-169 - Using Family-Based Designs to Test Associations between Pregnancy-Related Risks and Adverse Offspring Outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Pregnancy-related risks have been associated with adverse offspring birth, socio-emotional, and neurodevelopmental outcomes. However, much of the work examining pregnancy-related risk factors typically studies samples of one mother and her biologically related child per family. This design makes it impossible to determine if pregnancy-related risk factors causally impact offspring outcomes or if associations are due to confounding by genetic and environmental influences shared by family members. To account for these confounding factors, the papers in this symposium use family-based designs to assess associations between pregnancy-related risks and offspring outcomes. The first paper compares siblings differentially exposed to SSRIs to evaluate links with adverse birth outcomes. The second paper uses cousin and sibling comparisons to examine associations between labor induction and offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes (i.e., ADHD and low academic achievement). The third paper examines the influence of illicit drug use during pregnancy and heritable influences on child anger and overreactive parenting using an adoption design. The fourth paper examines mothers’ retrospective recall of prenatal experiences using an adoption design to control for the influence of concurrent child behaviors on mothers recall ability. Thus, this symposium uses designs that can account for unmeasured genetic and environmental confounding factors to test causal hypotheses. Findings from these studies increase the need for researchers to consider genetic confounds while investigating potential prenatal risks, as well as inform prevention science about potential prenatal risks that may be effective targets for intervention.

Sub Unit

• Biology and Neuroscience

Chair

• Amanda M. Ramos, The Pennsylvania State University

Individual Presentations

• A Family-Based Study on the Associations between Maternal SSRI Use during Pregnancy and Offspring Birth Outcomes - Presenting Author: Ayesha Sujan, Indiana University; Martin Rickert, Indiana University; Paul Lichtenstein, Karolinska Institutet; Anna Sara Oberg, Harvard University; Catarina Almqvist, Karolinska Institutet; Henrik Larsson, Karolinska Institutet; Brian M D'Onofrio, Indiana University

• A Family-Based Study of the Association between Induction of Labor and Offspring ADHD and Low Academic Achievement - Presenting Author: Kelsey K. Wiggs, Indiana University; Martin Rickert, Indiana University; Sonia Hernandez-Diaz, Harvard University; Brian T. Bateman, Harvard University; Catarina Almqvist, Karolinska Institutet; Henrik Larsson, Karolinska Institutet; Paul Lichtenstein, Karolinska Institutet; Anna Sara Oberg, Harvard University; Brian M D'Onofrio, Indiana University

• Child Evocative Effects on Parenting: The Role of Heritable and Prenatal Factors - Presenting Author: Chang Liu, The Pennsylvania State University; Charles Beekman, Arizona State University; Sy-Miin Chow, The Pennsylvania State University; Leslie Leve, University of Oregon; Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh; Jody Ganiban, George Washington University; David Reiss, Yale University; Jenae Neiderhiser, The Pennsylvania State University

• Examining Consistency of Mother's Retrospective Recall of Prenatal Events at 5 Months and 7 Years Postnatally - Presenting Author: Amanda M. Ramos, The Pennsylvania State University; Kristine Marceau, Purdue University; Jenae Neiderhiser, The Pennsylvania State University; Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh; David Reiss, Yale University; Jody Ganiban, George Washington University; Misaki Natsuaki, UC Riverside; Leslie Leve, University of Oregon