Gestational risks and psychiatric disorders among indigenous adolescents.

Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0324, USA. lwhitbeck2@unlnotes.unl.edu

This study reports on the effects maternal prenatal binge drinking, cigarette smoking, drug use, and pregnancy and birth complications on meeting criteria for psychiatric disorders at ages 10-12 and 13-15 years among 546 Indigenous adolescents from a single culture in the northern Midwest and Canada. Adolescent DSM-IV psychiatric disorders were assessed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-Revised (DISC-R). Results indicate that maternal behaviors when pregnant have significant effects on adolescent psychiatric disorders even when controlling for age and gender of adolescent, family per capita income, living in a single mother household, and adolescent reports of mother's positive parenting.

PMID: 18998209 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

PMCID: PMC2676774