Duration of Breastfeeding Mediates the Association Between Early Socioeconomic Risk and Child Vocabulary at Age 4

Breastfeeding duration and brain-body development in 9-10-year-olds: modulating effect of socioeconomic levels

OBJECTIVE

To investigate relationships of breastfeeding duration with brain structure and adiposity markers in youth and how these relationships are modified by neighborhood socioeconomic environments (SEEs).

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study of youth enrolled in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study® (n = 7511). Mixed effects models examined associations of breastfeeding duration with global brain measures and adiposity markers, adjusting for sociodemographic, pre- and post-natal covariates. Stratified analysis was performed by area deprivation index (ADI) tertiles.

RESULTS

Total cortical surface area (SA) (False Discovery Rate - FDR corrected P < 0.001), cortical (FDR corrected P < 0.001) and subcortical gray matter (GM) volume (FDR corrected P < 0.001) increased with increased breastfeeding duration. Body mass index (BMI) z-scores (FDR corrected P = 0.001), waist circumference (FDR corrected P = 0.002) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) (FDR corrected P = 0.001) decreased with increased breastfeeding duration. Breastfeeding duration was inversely associated with adiposity in youth from high- and medium- ADI neighborhoods, but positively associated with SA across ADI tertiles.

CONCLUSIONS

In this cross-sectional study, longer breastfeeding duration was associated with lower adiposity indices, particularly in youth from lower SEEs and greater SA across SEE levels. Longer breastfeeding duration showed long-term associations with brain and body development for offspring.

IMPACT

Building on previous findings that longer breastfeeding duration is associated with healthier weight gain, lower obesity risk, and brain white matter development in infancy, our results find longer breastfeeding duration to be associated with lower adiposity indices and greater cortical and subcortical gray matter volume, and cortical surface area during peri-adolescence. Children from lower socioeconomic environments (SEEs) demonstrated stronger negative associations of breastfeeding duration and adiposity indices, and children across SEEs showed positive relationships between breastfeeding duration and cortical surface area. Promoting breastfeeding, particularly among women from lower SEEs would confer long-term benefits to offspring.

Depression symptoms, communication and cooperation skills, and friendship: longitudinal associations in young Norwegian children

Introduction

Symptoms of depression in early childhood have been linked to interpersonal difficulties, whereas friendships serve a protective function.

Methods

In the present study, we examined depression symptoms in preschool age (4 years) in relation to social skills (communication and cooperation), and friendships into early school age (Grades 1 and 2) in a large subsample (n = 943) of Norwegian children.

Results

The results indicated that preschool depression symptoms negatively predicted Grade 1 communication skills, which in turn predicted Grade 2 depression symptoms. This pathway suggests that communication skills may be a maintenance factor for depression symptoms in young children. In addition, preschool depression symptoms predicted lower Grade 1 cooperation skills, which in turn predicted lower Grade 2 communication skills, suggesting that preschool depression symptoms may begin a cascade of social skill problems that affect cooperation and communication skills into early school years. Best friendships were negatively related to depression symptoms in preschool and Grade 2.

Discussion

Given that preschool depression symptoms impact the development of social skills and friendships, it is important to attend to depression symptoms in early childhood.

Language development, linguistic input, and linguistic racism

Language development is both remarkable and unremarkable. It is remarkable because children learn the language(s) around them, signed or spoken, without explicit instruction or correction. It is unremarkable because children have done this for thousands of years without worldwide incident or catastrophe. Yet, much research on this organic developmental phenomenon relies on an empirical falsehood: "quality" linguistic input is necessary to facilitate language development. "Quality" is a value judgment, not a structural feature of any human language. I argue selectively legitimizing some linguistic input as "quality" is possible only through mischaracterizing what language is. This falsehood is also linguistic racism because it is based on a deficit perspective of the early linguistic experiences of a subset of children, specifically racialized children. I explore how linguistic racism stalls our collective understanding of language development and promotes an environment of bad science. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language Acquisition Psychology > Language Neuroscience > Development.

Duration of Breastfeeding and Supportive Paternal Caregiving in Early Childhood and the Potential Mediating Function of Maternal Caregiving

OBJECTIVE

Supportive paternal caregiving is influenced by contextual factors, including maternal caregiving behaviors. Although longer periods of breastfeeding have been found to be associated with higher levels of maternal supportive parenting, it remains unknown whether the benefits of breastfeeding also extend to fathers' supportive caregiving. This study tested the indirect relation between the duration of breastfeeding and paternal supportive parenting through maternal supportive parenting.

METHODS

Participating families (N = 623) were from the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental Study, a population-based longitudinal study in Southeast Norway. Path analysis was used to test associations between the duration of breastfeeding in the first year (parent report) and paternal supportive parenting (observed, 36 months), as potentially mediated by maternal supportive parenting (observed, 24 months).

RESULTS

After controlling for sociodemographic and birth factors, a longer duration of breastfeeding was indirectly associated with higher levels of observed paternal supportive parenting through maternal supportive parenting.

CONCLUSION

The current findings suggest that the longer breastfeeding duration during the first year of life (i.e., infancy) might have important implications for both maternal and paternal supportive parenting in toddlerhood.

The association between pregnancy-related anxiety and behavioral development in 18-month-old children: The mediating effects of parenting styles and breastfeeding methods

BACKGROUND

Pregnancy-related anxiety (PRA) is a distinct type of anxiety from general anxiety, affects many pregnant women, and is correlated with poor behavioral development in children. However, the mediation paths were unclear.

METHODS

A total of 2032 mother-infant pairs from the Ma'anshan Birth Cohort were included in the current study. Maternal PRA was assessed in the second and third trimesters. Children's behavioral development was evaluated at the age of 18 months. In addition, information on parenting styles and breastfeeding methods was obtained at postpartum. Multivariate regression and structural equation modeling were used to examine the associations between maternal PRA and children's behavioral development.

RESULTS

Significant intercorrelations were found between maternal PRA, the potential mediators (parenting styles and breastfeeding methods), and 18-month-old children's ASQ scores. Parenting styles played an intermediary role in the relationship between maternal PRA and children's behavioral development (β = 0.030, 95 % confidence interval: 0.017-0.051), and the mediating effect accounted for 29.1 % of the total effect. However, breastfeeding methods did not mediate the link between PRA and children's behavior.

LIMITATIONS

Depression and postpartum anxiety were not controlled for in our analysis, which left us unable to estimate the independent impact of PRA on children's behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

Parenting rather than breastfeeding is the mediating factor of behavioral problems in children caused by PRA.

Long-term benefits of breastfeeding on brain and body development among 9-10-year-olds: modulated by socioeconomic environment

Importance

It is yet unknown if breastfeeding (bf) benefits, to brain and body development of children, persist into peri-adolescence and vary by socioeconomic environments (SEEs).

Objective

We aim to investigate SEE-independent and SEE-modulated relationships between bf duration and child brain structure and adiposity markers during peri-adolescence.

Design setting and participants

This was a cross-sectional study of children aged 9-10 enrolled in the multi-center Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study®.

Exposures

Bf duration was self-reported. Neighborhood-level SEE was assessed using area deprivation index (ADI).

Main Outcomes

T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess global brain measures: volumes of white, cortical, and subcortical gray matter (GM), cortical thickness, and surface area (SA). Adiposity markers included age- and sex-specific body mass index (BMI z- scores), waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). Mixed effects models examined associations of bf duration with brain structure and adiposity markers controlling for sociodemographic, pre- and post-natal covariates. Stratified analysis was performed by tertiles of ADI.

Results

The sample consisted of 7,511 children (51.7% males; 18.8% no bf, 35.3% 1-6 months, 24.9% 7-12 months, 21.0% >12 months). Child's total SA (β (95% CI) = 0.053 (0.033, 0.074); FDR corrected P <0.001), cortical (β (95% CI) = 0.021 (0.010, 0.032); FDR corrected P <0.001) and subcortical GM volume (β (95% CI) = 0.016 (0.003, 0.030); FDR corrected P <0.001) increased monotonically with bf duration, after controlling for covariates. Child's BMI z -scores (β (95% CI) = -0.040 (-0.063, -0.016); FDR corrected P =0.001), waist circumference (β (95% CI) = -0.037 (-0.060, -0.014), FDR corrected P =0.002) and WHtR (β (95% CI) = -0.040 (-0.064, -0.018), FDR corrected P =0.001) decreased monotonically with increased bf duration, after controlling for covariates. Bf duration was inversely associated with adiposity in children from high- and medium-ADI neighborhoods. Bf duration was positively associated with SA across ADI tertiles.

Conclusions and Relevance

Our results imply that long-term benefits of bf on body and brain development in offspring increase as bf duration increases, particularly in children from low SEEs. Policies and social support aimed to incremental increases in bf duration among women from low SEEs would confer long-term benefits for offspring.

Key Points

Question: Do benefits of breastfeeding(bf), on children's brain and body development, persist long-term and are these benefits uniform across socioeconomic environments (SEEs)?Findings: Longer bf duration is associated with lower adiposity, greater cortical and subcortical gray matter volume, and cortical surface area in 9-10-year-old children. Children from lower SEEs showed stronger negative relationships between bf duration and adiposity. Children across all SEEs demonstrated positive relationships between bf duration and surface area.Meaning: Our results imply that long-term benefits to child brain and body development increase with bf duration; and children from lower SEEs benefited more from longer bf duration.