New York :If mothers drink during pregnancy, their children have problems paying attention and tend to be impulsive, a new study has found.
Indiana University researchers who analysed data for 4,912 mothers found that for each additional day per week that mothers drank alcohol during pregnancy, their children had an increase in conduct problems.
Children whose mothers drank alcohol during pregnancy had more attention and impulsiveness problems than children whose mothers did not drink.
But siblings whose mother drank more frequently during one pregnancy had the same level of difficulty with attention and impulsiveness.
“The findings thus support a strong inference that prenatal alcohol exposure causes an increased risk of offspring conduct problems through environmental processes,” lead researcher Brian M. D’Onofrio said.
“Therefore, prevention efforts should continue to target alcohol consumption during pregnancy.”
The findings have been published in the latest issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
“These results are consistent with prenatal alcohol exposure exerting an environmentally-mediated causal effect on childhood conduct problems, but the relation between prenatal alcohol exposure and attention and impulsivity problems is more likely to be caused by other factors correlated with maternal drinking during pregnancy,” the author said.
These other factors may include the use of tobacco, illegal drugs and other substances in addition to alcohol.