Longitudinal effects of prenatal exposure to air pollutants on self-regulatory capacities and social competence

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

<div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S1">  </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d1949314e212">Background</h5> <p id="P1">We evaluated the influence of prenatal exposure to widespread urban air pollutants on the development of self-regulation and social competence in a longitudinal prospective cohort of children born to nonsmoking minority women in New York City. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S2">  </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d1949314e217">Methods</h5> <p id="P2">Air pollutant exposure was estimated categorically by level of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)-DNA adducts in maternal blood collected at delivery, providing a biomarker of maternal exposure to PAH over a 2–3 month period. DESR was defined as moderate elevations on three specific scales of the Child Behavior Checklist (Anxious/Depressed, Aggressive Behavior, and Attention Problems). We used Generalized Estimating Equations to assess the influence of prenatal exposure to PAH on DESR in children at 3–5, 7, 9 and 11 years of age, adjusted for gender, and race/ethnicity. Next, we assessed the association of prenatal exposure to PAH with social competence, as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), the association of impaired self-regulation with social competence, and whether impairment in self-regulation mediated the association of prenatal exposure to PAH with social competence. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S3">  </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d1949314e222">Results</h5> <p id="P3">We detected a significant interaction (at p=.05) of exposure with time, in which the developmental trajectory of self-regulatory capacity was delayed in the exposed children. Multiple linear regression revealed a positive association between presence of PAH-DNA adducts and problems with social competence (p<0.04), level of dysregulation and problems with social competence (p<0.0001), and evidence that self-regulation mediates the association of prenatal exposure to PAH with SRS (p<0.0007). </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S4">  </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d1949314e227">Conclusions</h5> <p id="P4">These data suggest that prenatal exposure to PAH produces long-lasting effects on self-regulatory capacities across early and middle childhood, and that these deficits point to emerging social problems with real-world consequences for high-risk adolescent behaviors in this minority urban cohort. </p> </div>

Related collections

Most cited references 47

Record: found
Abstract: not found
Article: not found

Delay of gratification in children

W Mischel, Y Shoda, M Rodríguez (1989)

0 comments Cited 522 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Cancer risk assessment, indicators, and guidelines for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the ambient air.

Carl-Elis Boström, Per Gerde, Annika Hanberg … (2002)

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed during incomplete combustion. Domestic wood burning and road traffic are the major sources of PAHs in Sweden. In Stockholm, the sum of 14 different PAHs is 100-200 ng/m(3) at the street-level site, the most abundant being phenanthrene. Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) varies between 1 and 2 ng/m(3). Exposure to PAH-containing substances increases the risk of cancer in humans. The carcinogenicity of PAHs is associated with the complexity of the molecule, i.e., increasing number of benzenoid rings, and with metabolic activation to reactive diol epoxide intermediates and their subsequent covalent binding to critical targets in DNA. B[a]P is the main indicator of carcinogenic PAHs. Fluoranthene is an important volatile PAH because it occurs at high concentrations in ambient air and because it is an experimental carcinogen in certain test systems. Thus, fluoranthene is suggested as a complementary indicator to B[a]P. The most carcinogenic PAH identified, dibenzo[a,l]pyrene, is also suggested as an indicator, although it occurs at very low concentrations. Quantitative cancer risk estimates of PAHs as air pollutants are very uncertain because of the lack of useful, good-quality data. According to the World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines for Europe, the unit risk is 9 X 10(-5) per ng/m(3) of B[a]P as indicator of the total PAH content, namely, lifetime exposure to 0.1 ng/m(3) would theoretically lead to one extra cancer case in 100,000 exposed individuals. This concentration of 0.1 ng/m(3) of B[a]P is suggested as a health-based guideline. Because the carcinogenic potency of fluoranthene has been estimated to be approximately 20 times less than that of B[a]P, a tentative guideline value of 2 ng/m(3) is suggested for fluoranthene. Other significant PAHs are phenanthrene, methylated phenanthrenes/anthracenes and pyrene (high air concentrations), and large-molecule PAHs such as dibenz[a,h]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene (high carcinogenicity). Additional source-specific indicators are benzo[ghi]perylene for gasoline vehicles, retene for wood combustion, and dibenzothiophene and benzonaphthothiophene for sulfur-containing fuels.

0 comments Cited 288 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

The relationship between cognition and action: performance of children 3 1/2-7 years old on a Stroop-like day-night test.

C L Gerstadt, Y. J. Hong, A. Diamond (1994)

One hundred and sixty children 3 1/2-7 years of age (10 M, 10 F at each 6-month interval) were tested on a task that requires inhibitory control of action plus learning and remembering two rules. They were asked to say "day" whenever a black card with the moon and stars appeared and to say "night" when shown a white card with a bright sun. Children < 5 years had great difficulty. They started out performing well, but could not sustain this over the course of the 16-trial session. Response latency decreased from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 years. Children < 4 1/2 years performed well when they took very long to respond. To test whether the requirement to learn and remember two rules alone was sufficient to cause children difficulty, 80 children 3 1/2-5 years old were tested on a control version of the task ("say 'day' to one abstract design and 'night' to another"). Even the youngest children performed at a high level. We conclude that the requirement to learn and remember two rules is not in itself sufficient to account for the poor performance of the younger children in the experimental condition.