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Early temperament precedes children's emerging Big Five personality, but shared models of temperament and personality are scarce. We wanted to estimate the genetic factor structure underlying both temperament and the Big Five in children, employing a genetically informed study. Within the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, we selected 26,354 twins, siblings, and cousins. Mothers rated their children's temperament three times between the ages of 1.5 and 5 years, and the children's Big Five personality at the age of 8. We analyzed the data using biometric modeling. The mean heritability of single-time temperamental traits and Big Five personality traits was .48 and .45, respectively. The mean genetic correlations of temperament across time were .80. The genetic correlations of temperament at 5 years and the Big Five at 8 years revealed two factors, the first comprising reversed Big Five Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and reversed EAS Emotionality, the second comprising Big Five Extraversion, Openness to Experience, EAS Activity, Sociability, and reversed Shyness. A confirmatory factor analysis estimated the two factors showing heritabilities of .96 and .72, respectively. The two factors mirrored the metatraits Stability and Plasticity by John M. Digman. Temperament and personality in childhood can be meaningfully bridged using just two metafactors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

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PURPOSE: Current knowledge of the effect of prenatal caffeine exposure on the child's neurodevelopment is contradictory. The current study aimed to study whether caffeine intake during pregnancy was associated with impaired child neurodevelopment up to 8 years of age. METHOD: A total of 64,189 full term pregnancies from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study were included. A validated food-frequency questionnaire administered at gestational week 22 was used to obtain information on maternal caffeine intake from different sources. To assess child neurodevelopment (behaviour, temperament, motor development, language difficulties) validated scales were used to identify difficulties within each domain at 6, 18, 36 months as well as 5 and 8 years of age. Adjusted logistic regression models and mixed linear models were used to evaluate neurodevelopmental problems associated with maternal caffeine intake. RESULTS: Prenatal caffeine exposure was not associated with a persistently increased risk for behaviour, temperament, motor or language problems in children born at full-term. Results were consistent throughout all follow-ups and for different sources of caffeine intake. There was a minor trend towards an association between consumption of caffeinated soft drinks and high activity level, but this association was not driven by caffeine. CONCLUSION: Low to moderate caffeine consumption during pregnancy was not associated with any persistent adverse effects concerning the child's neurodevelopment up to 8 years of age. However, a few previous studies indicate an association between high caffeine consumption and negative neurodevelopment outcomes.

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We investigated whether children born preterm are at risk for language delay using a sibling-control design in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Participants included 26,769 siblings born between gestational weeks 23 and 42. Language delay was assessed when the children were 1.5, 3, and 5 years old. To adjust for familial risk factors, comparisons were conducted between preterm and full-term siblings. Pregnancy-specific risk factors were controlled for by means of observed variables. Findings showed that preterm children born before week 37 had increased risk for language delays at 1.5 years. At 3 and 5 years, only children born before week 34 had increased risk for language delay. Children born weeks 29-33 and before week 29 had increased risk for language delay at 1.5 years (RR = 4.51, 95% CI [3.45, 5.88]; RR = 10.32, 95% CI [6.7, 15.80]), 3 years (RR = 1.50, 95% CI [1.02, 2.21]; RR = 2.78, 95% CI [1.09, 7.07]), and 5 years (RR = 1.63, 95% CI [1.06, 2.51]; RR = 2.98, 95% CI [0.87, 10.26]), respectively. In conclusion, children born preterm are at risk for language delays, with familial confounders only explaining a moderate share of the association. This suggests a cause-effect relationship between early preterm birth and risk for language delay in preschool children.

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METHODS: We repeatedly examined 25889 siblings within the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, following them from the mothers' pregnancy through child age 8 years. Information on the children's height and weight was collected by means of health registries and maternal reports. Information on the siblings' temperament was collected by questionnaires completed when they were 1.5, 3, and 5 years old. We examined the associations of temperament at different child ages with the timing of the adiposity rebound among siblings and controls by means of growth curve and multilevel analyses. RESULTS: Within siblings, high scores on the approach trait of sociability predicted an earlier adiposity rebound and high scores on the avoidance trait of shyness predicted a later adiposity rebound with timing differences ranging between 6 and 16 weeks. Surprisingly, negative emotionality did not predict the adiposity rebound. The associations between temperament and the adiposity rebound increased with increasing child age. The results within controls-comparing siblings with the population, broadly paralleled those within siblings. CONCLUSIONS: The findings encourage the notion that child temperament functions as an early marker for the adiposity rebound. Future studies may advance our knowledge by including measures of child personality along the taxonomy of the adult Five Personality Factors.

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OBJECTIVE: Our aim is to examine the associations of the Big Five personality factors with eating behaviors in children using a cross-sectional study in 1543 randomly Norwegian 7-12 year olds. RESULTS: Mothers rated the hierarchical personality inventory for children, and the child eating behaviour questionnaire to describe her child. Personality and eating behaviors were substantially associated in bivariate correlations and multivariate analyses of variance. The strongest predictors of eating behaviors were neuroticism, followed by agreeableness and conscientiousness. Neuroticism correlated the highest with slow eating, emotional undereating, food responsiveness, and emotional overeating, and showed minor associations with satiety responsiveness, and fussiness. Neuroticism was not associated with enjoyment of food. Agreeableness was associated with low fussiness, low emotional undereating, low food responsiveness and low emotional overeating, conscientiousness was associated with low satiety responsiveness, and food responsiveness, and extraversion and imagination were associated with high enjoyment of food.

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How personality traits relate to structural brain changes in development is an important but understudied question. In this study, cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA), estimated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), were investigated in 99 participants aged 8-19 years. Follow-up MRI data were collected after on average 2.6 years for 74 individuals. The Big Five personality traits were related to longitudinal regional CT or SA development, but limited cross-sectional relations were observed. Conscientiousness, emotional stability, and imagination were associated with more age-expected cortical thinning over time. The results suggest that the substantial individual variability observed in personality traits may partly be explained by cortical maturation across adolescence, implying a developmental origin for personality-brain relations observed in adults.

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BACKGROUND: Recent findings has shown that late preterm births (gestational weeks 34-36) and early term births (gestational weeks 37-38) is associated with an increased risk of several psychological and developmental morbidities. In this article we investigate whether late preterm and early term births is associated with an increased risk of emotional and behavioral problems at 36 months of age and whether there are gender differences in risk of these outcomes. METHODS: Forty-three thousand, two hundred ninety-seven children and their mothers participating in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). One thousand, eight hundred fifty-three (4.3%) of the children in the sample were born late preterm and 7,835 (18.1%) were born early term. Information on gestational age and on prenatal and postnatal risk factors was retrieved from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Information on emotional and behavioral problems was assessed by standardized questionnaires (CBCL/ITSEA) filled out by the mothers. Gender-stratified logistic regression analyses were used to explore the association between late preterm / early term and emotional and behavioral problems at 36 months of age. RESULTS: We found a gender-specific increased risk of emotional problems in girls born late preterm (OR 1.47 95%CI 1.11-1.95) and in girls born early term (OR 1.21 95%CI 1.04-1.42). We did not find an increased risk of emotional problems in boys born late preterm (OR 1.09 95%CI 0.82-1.45) or early term (OR 0.93 95%CI 0.79-1.10). Behavioral problems were not increased in children born late preterm or early term. CONCLUSION: Girls born late preterm and early term show an increased risk of emotional problems at 36 months of age. This finding suggests that gender should be taken into account when evaluating children born at these gestational ages.

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BACKGROUND: Anxiety is associated with preterm deliveries in general (before week 37 of pregnancy), but is that also true for late preterm (weeks 34/0-36/6) and early term deliveries (weeks 37/0-38/6)? We aim to examine this association separately for spontaneous and provider-initiated deliveries. METHODS: Participants were pregnant women from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), which has been following 95 200 pregnant women since 1999. After excluding pregnancies with serious health complications, 81 244 participants remained. National ultrasound records were used to delineate late preterm, early term, and full-term deliveries, which then were subdivided into spontaneous and provider-initiated deliveries. We measured trait anxiety based on two ratings of the anxiety items on the Symptom Checklist-8 (Acta Psychiatr Scand 87:364-7, 1993). Trait anxiety was transformed into categorizing the score at the mean and at ± 2 standard deviations. RESULTS: Trait anxiety was substantially associated with late preterm and early term deliveries after adjusting for confounders. In the whole sample, women with the highest anxiety scores (+2 standard deviations) were more likely [(odds ratio (OR) = 1.7; 95 % confidence-interval (CI) 1.3-2.0)] to delivering late preterm than women with the lowest anxiety scores. Their odds of delivering early term were also high (OR = 1.4; CI 1.3-1.6). Women with spontaneous deliveries and the highest anxiety scores had higher odds (OR = 1.4; CI 1.1-1.8) of delivering late preterm and early term (OR = 1.3; CI = 1.3-1.5). The corresponding odds for women with provider-initiated deliveries were OR = 1.7 (CI = 1.2-2.4) for late preterm and OR = 1.3 for early term (CI = 1.01-1.6). Irrespective of delivery onset, women with provider-initiated deliveries had higher levels of anxiety than women delivering spontaneously. However, women with high anxiety were equally likely to have provider-initiated or spontaneous deliveries. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to show substantial associations between high levels of trait anxiety and late preterm delivery. Increased attention should be given to the mechanism underlying this association, including factors preceding the pregnancy. In addition, acute treatment should be offered to women displaying high levels of anxiety throughout pregnancy to avoid suffering for the mother and the child.

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Children's personality traits are invaluable predictors of concurrent and later mental and physical health. Several validated longer inventories for assessing the widely recognized Five-Factor Model of personality in children are available, but short forms are scarce. This study aimed at constructing a 30-item form of the 144-item Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC) (Mervielde & De Fruyt, ). Participants were 1543 children aged 6-12 years (sample 1) and 3895 children aged 8 years (sample 2). Sample 1 completed the full HiPIC, from which we constructed the HiPIC-30, and the Child Behaviour Checklist (Achenbach, ). Sample 2 completed the HiPIC-30. The HiPIC-30 personality domains correlated over r = .90 with the full HiPIC domains, had good Cronbach's alphas and correlated similarly with CBCL behaviour problems and gender as the full HiPIC. The factor structures of the HiPIC-30 were convergent across samples, but the imagination factor was not clear-cut. We conclude that the HiPIC-30 is a reliable and valid questionnaire for the Five-Factor personality traits in children. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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BACKGROUND: Studies suggest that preterm delivery is a risk factor for early language delays, but knowledge is scarce about the persistence of the delays and whether the association is of a linear kind. To resolve this, effects of confounding risk factors that are both shared within a family and pregnancy specific need to be distinguished from effects of preterm delivery. Our study examines the association between early gestational age and language outcomes, using a sibling-control design. METHODS: The sample comprises 22,499 siblings from the Norwegian Mother and Child Birth Cohort Study, recruited between 1999 and 2008. Mothers rated child language comprehension and production at 18 and 36 months. Analyses compared siblings discordant on gestational age group (early preterm, delivery at week 22-33; late preterm, 34-36; early term, 37-38; full term, >38) and type of onset of delivery (spontaneous; provider-initiated), and compared these findings with conventional cohort analyses. RESULTS: The findings revealed inverse linear relations between the gestational age groups, and persistent but diminishing language delays. Effects of preterm delivery were substantial on both language production and comprehension at 18 months. By 36 months, the effects of preterm delivery were weaker, but still extensive, in particular for language production in provider-initiated births. When comparing sibling-control with cohort analyses, preterm group was less important among spontaneous births, but remained important in provider-initiated births. Familial and pregnancy risk factors partly explained this. CONCLUSIONS: Distinctive factors seem to underlie effects of preterm delivery across spontaneous and provider-initiated births.

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This study examines the associations of child temperament with overweight/obesity and breakfast habits. Participants were 17,409 five-year-olds whose mothers partake in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), and completed a questionnaire at the child's 5th birthday. Temperament was assessed as externalizing, internalizing and sociable temperament. Breakfast habits differentiated between "every day", "4 to 6 times a week", and "0 to 3 times a week". The child's weight status was determined by Body Mass Index-percentiles and categorized as normal weight versus overweight/obese. Children with externalizing temperament had higher odds of being overweight and higher odds of not eating breakfast daily. Children high in internalizing temperament had higher odds of not eating breakfast daily, but not of being overweight. Children with average scores of sociability were more prone to being overweight but had normal breakfast habits. All results were adjusted for key confounders. That five-year-olds high in externalizing temperament had a higher risk to be overweight adds important information to the literature. The association of externalizing temperament with child breakfast habits so early in life is intriguing, as parents mostly control eating patterns in children that young. Mechanisms mediating this association should be explored.

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OBJECTIVE: Child-related stress following the birth of a child with special health care needs (SHCN) can take a toll on parental health. This study examined how the risk of sick leave due to psychiatric disorders (PD) among mothers of children with SHCN compares with that of mothers of children without SHCN during early motherhood. METHODS: Responses from 58,532 mothers participating in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were linked to national registries and monitored for physician-certified sick leave from the month of their child's first birthday until the month of their child's fourth birthday. RESULTS: As compared with mothers of children without SHCN, mothers of children with mild and moderate/severe care needs were at substantial risk of a long-term sick leave due to PD in general and due to depression more specifically. CONCLUSIONS: Extensive childhood care needs are strongly associated with impaired mental health in maternal caregivers during early motherhood.

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Combining work and family responsibilities is challenging when children have special needs, and mothers commonly make employment-related adjustments. In this study, the authors examined associations between maternal work absence and child language impairment and behavior problems in preschool children. Questionnaire data at child age 3 years from 33,778 mothers participating in the prospective population-based Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were linked to national register data on employment and long-term physician-certified sick leave at child age 3-5 years. Mothers who reported having a child with language impairment had a consistently higher risk of not being employed and were at increased risk of taking long-term sick leave at child age 5 years. Co-occurring problems were associated with excess risk. Language impairments in preschool children, in particular when they are co-occurring with behavior problems, are likely to have a range of negative short- and long-term consequences for the financial and overall health and well-being of mothers and their families.

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OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk of communication impairments at age 18 and 36 months in children born early term (gestational weeks 37-38) and late preterm (gestational weeks 34-36). STUDY DESIGN: A total of 39 423 children and their mothers participated in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. The sample included 7109 children (18%) born early term and 1673 (4.2%) born late preterm. Information on gestational age and prenatal and postnatal risk factors was obtained from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway. Information on communication impairments was assessed using standardized questionnaires filled out by the mothers. Stepwise logistic regression analysis was applied to explore the associations between early term/late preterm birth and communication impairments at age 18 and 36 months. RESULTS: Compared with children born at term, children born early term and late preterm had an increased risk of communication impairments at age 18 and 36 months. In early term, the aOR was 1.27 (95% CI, 1.12-1.44) at 18 months for communication impairments and 1.22 (95% CI, 1.07-1.39) at 36 months for expressive language impairments. In late preterm, the aOR was 1.74 (95% CI, 1.41-2.14) at 18 months and 1.37 (95% CI, 1.09-1.73) at 36 months. CONCLUSION: Not only children born late preterm, but also those born early term, are at increased risk for communication impairments. Given the large number of children potentially affected, this may result in significant health care costs.

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This prospective population-based study examined associations between children's behaviour problems and maternal employment. Information on children's behaviour problems at 3 years from 22,115 mothers employed before pregnancy and participating in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were linked to national register data on employment and relevant social background factors, mothers' self-reported susceptibility to anxiety/depression and mother-reports of day-care attendance and fathers' income. Mothers reporting their child to have severe (>2 SD) internalizing or severe combined behaviour problems (5 %) had excess risk of leaving paid employment irrespective of other important characteristics generally associated with maternal employment (RR 1.24-1.31). The attributable risk percent ranged from 30.3 % (internalizing problems) to 32.4 % (combined problems). Externalizing behaviour problems were not uniquely associated with mothers leaving employment.

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Children born at term with low birth weight (LBW) are regarded growth restricted and are at particular risk of adverse health outcomes requiring a high degree of parental participation in the day-to-day care. This study examined whether their increased risk of special health care needs compared to other children may influence mothers' opportunities for participation in the labor market at different times after delivery. Data from 32,938 participants in the population-based Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study with singleton children born at term in 2004-2006 were linked to national registers in order to investigate the mothers' employment status when their children were 1-3 years in 2007 and 4-6 years in 2010. Children weighing less than two standard deviations below the gender-specific mean were defined as LBW children. Although not significantly different from mothers of children in the normal weight range, mothers of LBW children had the overall highest level of non-employment when the children were 1-3 years. At child age 4-6 years on the other hand, LBW was associated with an increased risk of non-employment (RR 1.39: 95 % CI 1.11-1.75) also after adjustment for factors associated with employment in general. In accordance with employment trends in the general population, our findings show that while mothers of normal birth weight children re-enter the labor market as their children grow older, mothers of LBW children born at term participate to a lesser extent in paid employment and remain at levels similar to those of mothers with younger children.

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This study explores the stability and change in maternal life satisfaction and psychological distress following the birth of a child with a congenital anomaly using 5 assessments from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study collected from Pregnancy Week 17 to 36 months postpartum. Participating mothers were divided into those having infants with (a) Down syndrome (DS; n = 114), (b) cleft lip/palate (CLP; n = 179), and (c) no disability (ND; n = 99,122). Responses on the Satisfaction With Life Scale and a short version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist were analyzed using structural equation modeling, including latent growth curves. Satisfaction and distress levels were highly diverse in the sample, but fairly stable over time (retest correlations: .47-.68). However, the birth of a child with DS was associated with a rapid decrease in maternal life satisfaction and a corresponding increase in psychological distress observed between pregnancy and 6 months postpartum. The unique effects from DS on changes in satisfaction (Cohen's d = -.66) and distress (Cohen's d = .60) remained stable. Higher distress and lower life satisfaction at later assessments appeared to reflect a persistent burden that was already experienced 6 months after birth. CLP had a temporary impact (Cohen's d = .29) on maternal distress at 6 months. However, the overall trajectories did not differ between CLP and ND mothers. In sum, the birth of a child with DS influences maternal psychological distress and life satisfaction throughout the toddler period, whereas a curable condition like CLP has only a minor temporary effect on maternal psychological distress.

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OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether maternal negative affectivity, a tendency to frequent negative emotions and views, is associated with light alcohol use and binge drinking during pregnancy. DESIGN: Cohort. SETTING: Norway 1999-2008. POPULATION: The study includes complete information on 66 111 pregnant women and their partners. METHODS: We used data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study (MoBa) representing 39% of the pregnant population. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Light alcohol use (0.5-2 units one to four times per month) and binge drinking (an intake of 5 alcohol units or more) measured with the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C). RESULTS: For each unit increase in maternal negative affectivity the odds for light alcohol use increased with 27% in the first trimester [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.19-1.36], and 28% in the second trimester (95% CI 1.18-1.39). With respect to binge drinking, each unit increase in maternal negative affectivity was associated with 55% higher odds in the first trimester (95% CI 1.44-1.67), and 114% higher odds in the second trimester (95% CI 1.70-2.69). CONCLUSIONS: Negative affectivity is associated with both light alcohol use and binge drinking during pregnancy. The mechanisms mediating the relation between negative affectivity and alcohol use in pregnancy should be investigated further.

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BACKGROUND: Many women temporarily reduce work hours or stop working when caring for small children. However, mothers of children with special health care needs may face particular challenges balancing childrearing responsibilities and employment demands. This study examines how the work participation among mothers of children with special health care needs compares with that of mothers in general during early motherhood, focusing in particular on the extent of the child's additional health care needs. METHODS: By linkage of the population-based Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study with national registers on employment, child health care needs, and social background factors, 41,255 mothers employed prior to childbirth were followed until child age 3 years to investigate associations between the child's care needs and mother's dropping out of employment. RESULTS: In total, 16.3% of the formerly employed mothers were no longer employed at child age 3 years. Mothers of children with mild care needs did not differ from mothers in general, whereas mothers of children with moderate [Risk Ratio (RR) 1.45; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17, 1.80] and severe care needs [RR 2.19; 95% CI 1.67, 2.87] were at substantial risk of not being employed at follow-up. The impact of the child's health care needs remained strong also after adjusting for several factors associated with employment in general. CONCLUSIONS: Extensive childhood health care needs are associated with reduced short-term employment prospects and remain a substantial influence on mothers' work participation during early motherhood, irrespective of other important characteristics associated with maternal employment.

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OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of partner relationship satisfaction among mothers of children with different severity of congenital heart defects (CHD) compared with mothers in the cohort. METHODS: Mothers of children with mild, moderate, or severe CHD (n = 182) and a cohort of mothers of children without CHD (n = 46,782) from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were assessed at 5 time points from pregnancy to 36 months postpartum. A 5-item version of the Relationship Satisfaction scale was used, and relevant covariates were explored. RESULTS: The trajectories of relationship satisfaction among mothers of children with varying CHD severity did not differ from the trajectories in the cohort. All women in the cohort experienced decreasing relationship satisfaction from 18 months after delivery up to 36 months after delivery. CONCLUSIONS: Having a child with CHD, regardless of severity, does not appear to exacerbate the decline in relationship satisfaction.

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