Parental Age and Offspring Childhood Mental Health: A Multi-Cohort, Population-Based Investigation

Maria A J Zondervan-Zwijnenburg, Sabine Veldkamp, Alexander Neumann, Stefania A Barzeva, Stefanie A Nelemans, C.E.M. van Beijsterveldt, Susan J T Branje, Manon H J Hillegers, Wim H J Meeus, Henning Tiemeier, Herbert J A Hoijtink, Albertine J Oldehinkel, D.I. Boomsma

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

To examine the contributions of maternal and paternal age on offspring externalizing and internalizing problems, this study analyzed problem behaviors at age 10-12 years from four Dutch population-based cohorts (N = 32,892) by a multiple informant design. Bayesian evidence synthesis was used to combine results across cohorts with 50% of the data analyzed for discovery and 50% for confirmation. There was evidence of a robust negative linear relation between parental age and externalizing problems as reported by parents. In teacher-reports, this relation was largely explained by parental socio-economic status. Parental age had limited to no association with internalizing problems. Thus, in this large population-based study, either a beneficial or no effect of advanced parenthood on child problem behavior was observed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)964-982
Number of pages19
JournalChild Development
Volume91
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2020

Bibliographical note

© 2019 The Authors Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.

Funding

We warmly thank all participating families and teachers in the Dutch cohorts which supplied data. All authors are part of the Consortium on Individual Development (CID). CID is funded through the Gravitation Program of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO grant number 024.001.003). Dorret I. Boomsma acknowledges the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science Professor Award (PAH/6635), NWO 480-15-001/674: Netherlands Twin Registry Repository: researching the interplay between genome and environment and the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 602768: ACTION (Aggression in Children: Unraveling gene-environment interplay to inform Treatment and InterventiON strategies). The work of Henning Tiemeier is supported a NWO-VICI grant (NWO-ZonMW: 016.VICI.170.200). Stefania A. Barzeva is funded as part of an NWO-VICI project (NWO 016.001/002) granted to Tineke A.J. Olde-hinkel, whose work is further supported by NWO grants (481-11-001) and EIT Health grant 17385. The work of Wim H.J. Meeus and Susan J.T. Branje had been supported by multiple grants from NWO (grant numbers GB-MAGW 480-03-005, GB-MAGW 480-08-006, GB-MAGW 481-08-014, GB-MAGW 481-08-004) .

FundersFunder number
Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science
NWO-VICI
Royal Netherlands Academy of SciencePAH/6635, 480-15-001/674
Fogarty International CenterR03TW001003
Seventh Framework Programme602768
EIT HealthGB-MAGW 481-08-014, GB-MAGW 481-08-004, 17385, GB-MAGW 480-03-005, GB-MAGW 480-08-006
ZonMw016.001/002
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek024.001.003, 481-11-001
Seventh Framework Programme

    Cohort Studies

    • Netherlands Twin Register (NTR)

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