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This study separately assessed the associations of maternal and paternal psychological distress during pregnancy with early growth in preschool children. The study was based on data from a population-based cohort study involving 5,283 children and their parents (with data collected beginning in early pregnancy) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from 2002 to 2006. Information on parental psychological distress (symptoms of depression, anxiety, hostility, and family stress) was obtained by questionnaire in the second trimester of gestation by using the Brief Symptom Inventory and the “general functioning” subscale of the McMaster Family Assessment Device. Child height, weight, and body mass index (weight (kg)/height (m)2) were measured repeatedly from age 3 months to age 4 years. We observed no consistent associations between overall maternal psychological symptoms, depression, anxiety, or hostility and child height, weight, or body mass index after adjustment for confounders. All maternal psychological distress scores were positively associated with the risk of overweight in childhood; however, these associations attenuated toward the null and became nonsignificant after adjusting for potential confounders. We did not observe consistent associations between paternal psychological distress and growth in childhood. These results indicate that social, behavioral, or environmental factors that cluster with parental psychological distress may explain the previously suggested associations between maternal psychological distress and early childhood growth and risk of overweight. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

lthough relations of various parental psychological problems and family functioning with child development are well documented, it remains unclear whether specific prenatal or specific postnatal risk factors are independently associated with child emotional and behavioural problems, or whether observed associations can be explained by general parental psychopathology. Using a stepwise approach, we examined the effects of prenatal and postnatal parental depressive symptoms, prenatal and postnatal hostility of the parents, as well as prenatal family functioning on the risk of child emotional and behavioural problems. This study was embedded in Generation R: a population-based cohort from foetal life onwards. Mothers and fathers of 2,698 children provided information about depressive symptoms, symptoms of hostility and family functioning during pregnancy and 3 years after birth. Mother and father each reported on child behaviour when the child was 3 years old. Parental depressive symptoms increased the risk of child emotional and behavioural problems, but this increase was explained by postnatal parental hostile behaviour. Postnatal symptoms of hostility of mothers (OR = 1.34, p value <0.001) and postnatal symptoms of hostility of fathers (OR = 1.30, p value <0.001) each contributed independently to the risk of child emotional and behavioural problems. Postnatal parental hostility is associated with an increased risk of child emotional and behavioural problems, independent of parental depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that prevention and intervention strategies should focus on psychological symptoms of both mothers and fathers, in particular on hostile behaviour, in families with young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]