How Chemical Or Non-Chemical Intoxicants Can Influence Kid'S Temperament
In this study, Annemarie Stroustrup and her team hypothesized that intoxicants, whether they are chemical or non-chemical, can influence toddler temperament later on. Temperament can help predict and hypothesize behaviors that could occur later in life such as impulsiveness, obesity, and emotion regulation. It is used almost as a measurement tool to help anticipate behavior later on. This study has tested whether these environmental factors when exposed to the fetus during pregnancy ties to physical, cognitive, and behavioral tendencies. These factors include prenatal exposure to mercury, lead, socioeconomic status and depression during pregnancy (Annemarie et al., 2016).
Literature Review
Temperament is the reflection of when emotional and social environmental cues are present and how the person’s mannerism are shown. Temperament can be used as a tool to give many a good idea of behavioral problems that can be expressed later on in life. Many believe that it is established through environmental and genetic factors after birth in the perinatal period of life. Alike, temperament is also affected during the prenatal stages of life if the infant is exposed to poisons that change the nervous system. Because of the neurotoxins interference, the infant can express behavioral disorders later in life (Annemarie et al., 2016).
These environmental intoxicants, especially mercury, can deeply affect cognition in a negative way. This evidence has led scientists to believe that lead and metals could possibly alter toddler temperament too. However, non-chemical toxicants have also been shown to influence the developing fetus such as extreme stress, anxiety, and depression. When these feelings are expressed during pregnancy, the infant is at an increased risk for not only cognitive hindrances, but also physical and behavioral difficulties too. This study attempted to find a relationship between exposure of chemical and non-chemical factors to temperament. Their hypothesis stated, “prenatal exposure to both chemical and non-chemical environmental toxicants impacts the development of temperament, which can itself be used as a marker of risk for maladaptive neurobehavior in later life” (Annemarie et al., 2016, p. 1).
Method
Five hundred Mexican women participated in this experiment. All women were healthy and were enrolled before the age of viability. The children had been tested on four different occasions on their neurological development by coming in at ages 6, 12, 18, and 24 months to be analyzed, thus completing the Toddler Temperament Scale (TTS). The TTS consisted of surveys given measuring socioeconomic status (SES), lead and mercury exposure, child development, and maternal depression risk (Annemarie et al., 2016). Surveys consisting of questions pertaining to SES were given to the participants to take were also sent out for collection of data and variables. Based on the information gathered from the survey, categories were condensed into three different levels including low, medium, and large SES. One month after birth, maternal blood was tested to measure lead exposure through Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry and recorded. They were also able to measure the amount of lead in bone marrow using the K-XRF protocol. It specifically targets the cortical and trabecular bone, to show the cumulative amount of lead exposure to the infant. The values are, “K-XRF produces negative values when the bone lead content is below the detection limit of the instrument” (Annemarie et al., 2016, p. 2-3). Scientists then evaluated mercury exposure through maternal mothers’ toenails collected from all ten toes. The samples were rid of any extraneous contaminants. They were then assessed by the Direct Mercury Analyzer 80 and the results were recorded for later use of the information. The mean of all the data was 0.019 μg/g, so the higher the number, the higher amount of mercury exposure there was to the infant during the pregnancy.
Child development was also analyzed including motor, cognition, and language development by the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. It includes many age-appropriate questions and caregivers gave ratings based on a statement on a 6-point scale (Annemarie et al., 2016). The higher the scores were, the more difficult the temperament of the children because of the way the test was coded. These answers and ratings were also recorded for later comparison. Finally, maternal depression risk was measured by using The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).
EPDS consists of ten questions given to the mother during and immediately after pregnancy. The scale was used to see if the woman was experiencing depressive tendencies and symptoms. All of the results from each experiment were compared to the child development and their temperament. The article states, “The association between each measure of prenatal exposure and performance on an individual TTS subscales was evaluated” (Annemarie et al., 2016, p. 1).
Discussion
The results of the TTS showed that exposure to depression during pregnancy did somewhat correlate to difficult toddler temperament. A scale was created to help categorize the different levels of their temperament, including predominately difficult, intermediate, or easy temperament. Children with mothers who experienced prenatal depression had a higher probability of a difficult temperament. Maternal bone lead was also tied to the increasing probability of difficult behavior, and exposure to lead for the infant had corresponded as well. However, if both are present, this is the most toxic for the infant. The study found that mothers with high maternal depression scores directly related to difficult temperament from toddlers (Annemarie et al., 2016).
Prenatal exposure to mercury and SES did not alter the affects of depression from mothers after birth on infant temperament. However, the higher the exposure to mercury helped predict that the toddler would have more difficult behaviors from middle child to adolescents. Strengths that this experiment shows is that social and chemical factors were assessed properly since they were measured over a period of time, and not just after birth or months later. The research methods that they used were all pre-approved and validated measures, and they were all administered by trained professionals. All administers had doctoral or master’s degrees in child psychology (Annemarie et al., 2016).
Another strength was that they were able to collect lead exposure measurements at different ages. Therefore, they were able to correlate lead exposure to a certain age. The authors believed that they had gotten relatively accurate information and data from their experiments. This is because they used validated research methods. They also thought their results happened simply because exposure to metals and maternal depression had been reported before that they affected cognitive development (Annemarie et al., 2016). However, there were some limitations that were present. The study had only consisted of participants and families located in urban Mexico. This makes it so the results are not a generalization, and therefore cannot typically be used as reference to others. Another limitation was from the tool used to test maternal depression. They used the EPDS which is not a diagnostic tool, but instead a screening. Consequently, those deemed with maternal depression could still not meet the criteria that would make their depression diagnosable (Annemarie et al., 2016).
Further research should be done on prenatal exposures to test which environmental factors could possibly affect a child’s temperament later on in life. This research will help bring to light which chemical and non-chemical factors could affect children’s behavior, and help predict their temperament later on in life.
Conclusion
I personally chose this article simply because I had no idea on how environmental factors could affect an infant’s behaviors and tendencies. It really fascinates me how a feeling of depression can deeply change and alter the way a child thinks right at the start. It also brings awareness that I did not have before on how delicate and easily manipulated an infant’s mind can be. It also shows how some babies can really have a rough start when their mother is under a lot of pressure or is severely depressed, and it makes me feel compassionate towards them. I do wish they could have looked at different races and locations of the babies. I also wished they included gender as one of the variables. It would very interesting to know if lead exposure affected a girl’s cognitive ability more than boys.
This topic was very interesting, I just wished they could have condensed it a little bit more, because sometimes it would feel all over the place. For example, it would have been better for me personally if they just measured maternal depression and its relation to toddler temperament. There just seemed to be too much going on at one time, and I felt that I missed out on certain information.
