Developmental pathway modeling in considering behavior problems in young Russian children

A Systematic Review of Household and Family Alcohol Use and Childhood Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Childhood exposure to alcohol misuse by household adults has been related to childhood developmental delay, cognitive impacts, mental illness, and problem behaviours. Most evidence comes from high income countries. This systematic review only included studies from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Five databases were searched from 1990-2020. Twenty-eight studies of children 0-12 years were included, with 42,599 participants from 11 LMICs. The most common outcome was behavioural problems/disorders (19 studies). Despite varying study designs, this review found that alcohol misuse by household members in LMICs is associated with adverse child neurodevelopmental outcomes, although casual inferences cannot be drawn in the absence of well conducted prospective studies. Statistically significant correlations were described between parental alcohol misuse and child emotional and behavioural difficulties, cognitive delay, and risky behaviours. In future, prospective cohort studies are recommended, with adjustment for confounders.

What research is being done on prenatal alcohol exposure and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in the Russian research community?

AIMS

Although Russia has one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption and alcohol-attributable burden of disease, little is known about the existing research on prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) in this country. The objective of this study was to locate and review published and unpublished studies related to any aspect of PAE and FASD conducted in or using study populations from Russia.

METHODS

A systematic literature search was conducted in multiple English and Russian electronic bibliographic databases. In addition, a manual search was conducted in several major libraries in Moscow.

RESULTS

The search revealed a small pool of existing research studies related to PAE and/or FASD in Russia (126: 22 in English and 104 in Russian). Existing epidemiological data indicate a high prevalence of PAE and FASD, which underlines the strong negative impact that alcohol has on mortality, morbidity and disability in Russia. High levels of alcohol consumption by women of childbearing age, low levels of contraception use, and low levels of knowledge by health and other professionals regarding the harmful effects of PAE put this country at great risk of further alcohol-affected pregnancies.

CONCLUSIONS

Alcohol preventive measures in Russia warrant immediate attention. More research focused on alcohol prevention and policy is needed in order to reduce alcohol-related harm, especially in the field of FASD.

A multi-domain model of risk factors for ODD symptoms in a community sample of 4-year-olds

Few studies have been designed to assess the pathways by which risk factors are associated with symptoms of psychopathology across multiple domains, including contextual factors, parental depression, parenting, and child characteristics. The present study examines a cross-sectional model of risk factors for symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) in a diverse community sample of 796 four-year-old children. In the best-fitting model: (a) SES had indirect effects on contextual factors of stress and conflict, parental depression, and parenting factors including hostility, support, and scaffolding; (b) stress and conflict had both direct effects on ODD symptoms, and indirect effects via parental depression and parenting; (c) parenting had direct effects on ODD symptoms and indirect effects via child effortful control (EC), negative affect (NA) and sensory regulation (SR); (c) NA, EC, and SR had direct effects on symptom frequency, and attachment had indirect effects via EC, and SR. These results highlight the importance of using a multi-domain model to examine risk factors for symptoms of ODD, and also provide information about areas to target in treatment.