There are a number of key European policy agendas related to early childhood on which the DIAL research can shed light. This policy brief gives an overview of findings from DIAL projects in this area. Key Findings Early childhood investments are key to social mobility, and inequalities which can be measured in early childhood have … Read more
DIAL Policy Brief No. 7 ‘Investing in early childhood: What can policymakers learn from Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course (DIAL) research?’
Changes in emotional problems, hyperactivity and conduct problems in moderate to late preterm children and adolescents born between 1958 and 2002 in the United Kingdom
This study focuses on moderate-to-late preterm (MLPT) children (i.e., born between 32 and 36 weeks of gestation) , who are known to be at increased risk of developing emotional and behavioural problems in childhood and adolescence. Given the substantial improvements in neonatal care in recent decades, the authors hypothesised that there might have been a … Read more
Addressing inequalities early in life
The trajectory of a human’s life course is by no means determined at birth. Nevertheless, the circumstances a child is born into and events taking place during the early childhood, or even gestation, shape life-course trajectories. A substantial amount of research in the Dynamics of Inequality Across the Life-course (DIAL) research programme has examined what … Read more
Gestational age, parent education, and education in adulthood
BACKGROUND Adults born preterm (<37 weeks) have lower educational attainment than those born term. Whether this relationship is modified by family factors such as socioeconomic background is, however, less well known. We investigated whether the relationship between gestational age and educational attainment in adulthood differed according to parents’ educational level in 4 Nordic countries. METHODS … Read more
Maternal hypertensive pregnancy disorders and mental disorders in children
The associations of maternal hypertensive pregnancy disorders with offspring mental disorders remain unclear. We examined whether maternal hypertensive disorders and maximum blood pressure during pregnancy predict offspring childhood mental disorders, whether the associations are independent of maternal and paternal mental disorders and paternal hypertensive disorders, independent of or additive with maternal early pregnancy overweight/obesity and … Read more
Maternal hypertensive pregnancy disorders and mental and behavioral disorders in the offspring: a Review
Purpose of Review We review here recent original research and meta-analytic evidence on the associations of maternal hypertensive pregnancy disorders and mental and behavioral disorders in the offspring. Recent Findings Seven meta-analyses and 11 of 16 original research studies published since 2015 showed significant associations between maternal hypertensive pregnancy disorders and offspring mental and behavioral … Read more
Association of Very Preterm Birth or Very Low Birth Weight With Intelligence in Adulthood: An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis
Question Is very preterm birth or very low birth weight vs term birth associated with intelligence in adulthood? Findings In this meta-analys is of individual participant data from 8 cohorts comprising 2135 adults with and without very preterm birth or very low birth weight in 7 countries, IQ was significantly lower among adults who were … Read more
Associations Between Maternal Antenatal Corticosteroid Treatment and Mental and Behavioural Disorders in Children
Babies whose mothers are treated with steroid drugs during pregnancy are significantly more likely to suffer from later mental and behavioural disorders, this research finds. The study looks at data on 670,000 children born in Finland between 2006 and 2017 and assesses whether the drugs – commonly administered to help a foetus mature when premature … Read more
Subjective Well-Being and Self-Esteem in Preterm Born Adolescents: An Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis
This paper looks at the self-reported well-being and self-esteem of adolescents born very preterm and moderate to late preterm compared with those born full-term. Using information on around 14,500 people born In the UK, Germany and Switzerland, and whose lives were tracked into adolescence, the researchers found no difference between the general well-being around family, … Read more
Mental health outcomes of adults born very preterm or with very low birth weight: A systematic review
Preterm birth research is poised to explore the mental health of adults born very preterm(VP;<32+0 weeks gestational age) and/or very low birth weight(VLBW;<1500g) through individual participant data meta-analyses, but first the previous evidence needs to be understood. We systematically reviewed and assessed the quality of the evidence from VP/VLBW studies with mental health symptoms or … Read more