Father Absence in Pregnancy or During Childhood and Pubertal Development in Girls and Boys: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Maternal stress in pregnancy and pubertal timing in girls and boys: a cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether maternal stress in pregnancy is associated with pubertal timing in girls and boys and to explore potential mediation by childhood body mass index (BMI) and childhood psychosocial stress.

DESIGN

Cohort study.

SETTING

Not applicable.

PATIENTS

In total, 14,702 girls and boys from the Puberty Cohort, nested within the Danish National Birth Cohort.

INTERVENTION

Maternal stress was obtained from a computer-assisted telephone interview in gestational weeks 30-32 as maternal life stress and emotional distress in pregnancy using questions on the basis of validated screening tools. Maternal life stress and emotional distress in pregnancy were analyzed separately and in an interaction analysis.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Pubertal timing was measured half-yearly from age 11 years and throughout pubertal development and assessed as Tanner stages 1-5 (breast and pubic hair development in girls and genital and pubic hair development in boys), menarche in girls, voice break and first ejaculation in boys, and occurrence of acne and axillary hair in both girls and boys. A combined estimate for overall pubertal timing was derived using Huber-White robust variance estimation. Mean differences in age at attaining the pubertal milestones according to prenatal exposure to no (reference), low-, moderate-, or high-maternal stress in pregnancy were estimated using a multivariable censored regression model. Potential mediation by childhood BMI and childhood psychosocial stress was investigated in separate models.

RESULTS

After adjustment for potential confounding factors, prenatal exposure to high-maternal life stress (combined estimate: -1.8 months [95% CI, -2.7 to -0.8] and -0.9 months [95% CI, -1.8 to 0.0]), high maternal emotional distress (combined estimate: -1.5 months [95% CI, -2.5 to -0.5] and -1.7 months [95% CI, -2.8 to -0.7]), and both high-maternal life stress and emotional distress (combined estimate: -2.8 months [95% CI, -4.2, to -1.4] and -1.7 months [95% CI, -3.1 to -0.2]) were associated with earlier pubertal timing in girls and boys, respectively. The associations were not mediated by childhood BMI or childhood psychosocial stress.

CONCLUSIONS

Prenatal exposure to maternal stress in pregnancy was associated with earlier pubertal timing in girls and boys in a dose-dependent manner. The associations were not mediated by childhood BMI or childhood psychosocial stress.

Paternal and maternal exposures to adverse childhood experiences and spontaneous fetal loss: a nationwide cross-sectional analysis

BACKGROUND

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) might be associated with maternal spontaneous fetal loss, while evidence among Chinese population is limited. This study aims to explore the associations of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among women and their spouses with the risk of spontaneous abortion and stillbirth.

METHOD

Data were from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2014 survey. ACEs were categorized into intra-familial ACEs and extra-familial ACEs. The associations of maternal and paternal ACEs with women's history of spontaneous abortion and stillbirth were investigated by logistic regression.

RESULTS

7,742 women were included with 9.05% and 2.47% experiencing at least one spontaneous abortion or stillbirth, respectively. Women exposed to 2, 3, and ≥ 4 ACEs were at significantly higher odds of spontaneous abortion, with adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of 1.52 (95% [CI, Confidence Interval] 1.10-2.10), 1.50 (95% CI 1.07-2.09) and 1.68 (95% CI 1.21-2.32), respectively. A significant association between ≥ 4 maternal intra-familial ACEs and stillbirth (OR 2.23, 95% CI 1.12-4.42) was also revealed. Furthermore, paternal exposures to 3 and ≥ 4 overall ACEs were significantly associated with their wives' history of spontaneous abortion, with adjusted ORs of 1.81 (95% CI 1.01-3.26) and 1.83 (95% CI 1.03-3.25), respectively.

CONCLUSION

Both maternal and paternal ACEs were associated with spontaneous abortion, and potential mediators might need to be considered to further explore impacts of maternal and paternal ACEs on maternal reproductive health.

Mothers' prenatal distress accelerates adrenal pubertal development in daughters

Human life history schedules vary, partly, because of adaptive, plastic responses to early-life conditions. Little is known about how prenatal conditions relate to puberty timing. We hypothesized that fetal exposure to adversity may induce an adaptive response in offspring maturational tempo. In a longitudinal study of 253 mother-child dyads followed for 15 years, we investigated if fetal exposure to maternal psychological distress related to children's adrenarche and gonadarche schedules, assessed by maternal and child report and by dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), testosterone, and estradiol levels. We found fetal exposure to elevated maternal prenatal psychological distress predicted earlier adrenarche and higher DHEA-S levels in girls, especially first-born girls, and that associations remained after covarying indices of postnatal adversity. No associations were observed for boys or for gonadarche in girls. Adrenarche orchestrates the social-behavioral transition from juvenility to adulthood; therefore, significant findings for adrenarche, but not gonadarche, suggest that prenatal maternal distress instigates an adaptive strategy in which daughters have earlier social-behavioral maturation. The stronger effect in first-borns suggests that, in adverse conditions, it is in the mother's adaptive interest for her daughter to hasten social maturation, but not necessarily sexual maturation, because it would prolong the duration of the daughter allomothering younger siblings. We postulate a novel evolutionary framework that human mothers may calibrate the timing of first-born daughters' maturation in a way that optimizes their own reproductive success.

Father absence and pubertal timing in Korean boys and girls

Background and objectives

Pubertal timing is a key life history trait with long-term health consequences in both sexes. Evolutionary theory has guided extensive research on developmental influences, in particular growing up without a father, on earlier menarche. Far less is known whether a similar relationship exists for boys, especially beyond western contexts. We used longitudinal data from the nationally representative sample of Korean adolescents, which provided us with a unique opportunity for studying male puberty using a hitherto underutilized biomarker: age at first nocturnal ejaculation.

Methodology

We pre-registered and tested a prediction that growing up in father-absent households is associated with earlier puberty in both sexes. Large sample size (>6000) allowed testing the effect of father absence, which remains relatively uncommon in Korea, while adjusting for potential confounders using Cox proportional-hazard models.

Results

Self-reported age at first nocturnal ejaculation was on average 13.8 years, falling within the range known from other societies. Unlike previous findings mostly for white girls, we did not find evidence that Korean girls in father-absent households had a younger age at menarche. Boys in father-absent households reported having their first nocturnal ejaculation 3 months earlier on average, and the difference was evident before age 14.

Conclusion and implications

The association between father absence and pubertal timing appears sex- and age-dependent, and these differences may further interact with cultural norms regarding gender roles. Our study also highlights the utility of the recalled age of first ejaculation for male puberty research, which has lagged in both evolutionary biology and medicine.

Parental Separation and Semen Quality in Young Men: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Purpose

Parental separation may be a stressful life event with the potential to influence hormonal regulation of offspring reproductive health and thereby affect semen quality in young men. We aimed to study the association between parental separation in pregnancy or in childhood and semen quality in young men and to study whether the timing of parental separation in childhood was important.

Patients and Methods

We conducted a follow-up study of 1058 young men born 1998–2000 from the Fetal Programming of Semen Quality (FEPOS) cohort nested within the Danish National Birth Cohort. Data on parental separation were obtained longitudinal by self-report. Parental separation in pregnancy was dichotomized, and parental separation in childhood was both dichotomized and categorized according to the timing of parental separation (from birth, from early childhood (0–5 years), and from late childhood (6–10 years)). Semen volume, concentration, total sperm count, motility, morphology, and testes volume were analysed using multivariable negative binomial regression models.

Results

Parental separation in pregnancy was not associated with semen quality. The association between parental separation in childhood and semen quality differed with the timing of parental separation. Parental separation from birth was associated with higher semen volume of 25%, 95% CI (−5; 64); higher total sperm count of 62%, 95% CI (−6; 179); and higher proportion of morphologically normal spermatozoa of 59%, 95% CI (20; 111). Parental separation in early childhood was associated with lower semen volume of −14%, 95% CI (−24; −3); lower concentration of −15%, 95% CI (−28; 1); lower total sperm count of −17%, 95% CI (−32; 2) and lower testes volume of −11%, 95% CI (−18; −3).

Conclusion

The timing of parental separation was important, and parental separation from birth was associated with higher semen quality, and parental separation in early childhood was associated with lower semen quality.