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Mutual relationships between head injury and conduct problems in children aged 9 months to 14 years in the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Mutual relationships between head injury and conduct problems in children aged 9 months to 14 years in the UK Millennium Cohort Study
Mutual relationships between head injury and conduct problems in children aged 9 months to 14 years in the UK Millennium Cohort Study
Background: research suggests a link between acquired head injury and signs of conduct disorder, with a majority of findings based on retrospective reports and comparison samples. The relationship between head injuries and conduct problems and how they may influence one another during development is currently unclear. This study aimed to investigate direct and indirect associations between head injury and conduct problems through to early adolescence.

Methods: data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study was used to investigate the relationship between conduct problems as assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and parent reported head injury over time, at ages 9 months, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 14 years, using a cross-lagged path analysis. This is data from 18,552 children, participating in a UK cohort study that is representative of the UK population. We included 7,041 (3,308 male) children, who had full information about head injuries and conduct problems at age 14.

Results: we found a mutual association between childhood head injuries and conduct problems but with distinct timings: Head injury between 5-7 years predicted greater chance of conduct problems at age 11 and 14 years, while greater conduct problems at 5 years predicted a significantly greater chance of a head injury at age 7-11 years.

Conclusions: these findings have important implications for the timing of preventive and ameliorative interventions. Prior to school entry, interventions aiming to reduce conduct problems would appear most effective at reducing likelihood of head injuries in future years. However, equivalent interventions targeting head injuries would be better timed either as children are entering formal primary education, or soon after they have entered.
head injury, Conduct problems, millennium cohort study, Strengths and Difficulty Questionnaire, path analysis, longitudinal analyses, Early childhood, Adolescence
medRxiv
Brandt, Valerie
e41f5832-70e4-407d-8a15-85b861761656
Hall, Charlotte
62443dc2-8196-4a72-a39e-ec57856cc73b
Eisenbarth, Hedwig
ff837e52-e40e-4c77-8ec8-9fb744d2b22f
Hall, James
29e17a2b-dca0-4b91-be02-2ace4abaa6c4
Brandt, Valerie
e41f5832-70e4-407d-8a15-85b861761656
Hall, Charlotte
62443dc2-8196-4a72-a39e-ec57856cc73b
Eisenbarth, Hedwig
ff837e52-e40e-4c77-8ec8-9fb744d2b22f
Hall, James
29e17a2b-dca0-4b91-be02-2ace4abaa6c4

Brandt, Valerie, Hall, Charlotte, Eisenbarth, Hedwig and Hall, James (2022) Mutual relationships between head injury and conduct problems in children aged 9 months to 14 years in the UK Millennium Cohort Study medRxiv 18pp. (doi:10.1101/2022.01.09.22268970).

Record type: Monograph (Working Paper)

Abstract

Background: research suggests a link between acquired head injury and signs of conduct disorder, with a majority of findings based on retrospective reports and comparison samples. The relationship between head injuries and conduct problems and how they may influence one another during development is currently unclear. This study aimed to investigate direct and indirect associations between head injury and conduct problems through to early adolescence.

Methods: data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study was used to investigate the relationship between conduct problems as assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and parent reported head injury over time, at ages 9 months, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 14 years, using a cross-lagged path analysis. This is data from 18,552 children, participating in a UK cohort study that is representative of the UK population. We included 7,041 (3,308 male) children, who had full information about head injuries and conduct problems at age 14.

Results: we found a mutual association between childhood head injuries and conduct problems but with distinct timings: Head injury between 5-7 years predicted greater chance of conduct problems at age 11 and 14 years, while greater conduct problems at 5 years predicted a significantly greater chance of a head injury at age 7-11 years.

Conclusions: these findings have important implications for the timing of preventive and ameliorative interventions. Prior to school entry, interventions aiming to reduce conduct problems would appear most effective at reducing likelihood of head injuries in future years. However, equivalent interventions targeting head injuries would be better timed either as children are entering formal primary education, or soon after they have entered.

Text
2022.01.09.22268970v1.full - Author's Original
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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 10 January 2022
Published date: 10 January 2022
Keywords: head injury, Conduct problems, millennium cohort study, Strengths and Difficulty Questionnaire, path analysis, longitudinal analyses, Early childhood, Adolescence

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 469584
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/469584
PURE UUID: 162807b8-407b-420e-b7bc-5b3845dae5f0
ORCID for James Hall: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8002-0922

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Date deposited: 20 Sep 2022 16:48
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:47

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Contributors

Author: Valerie Brandt
Author: Charlotte Hall
Author: Hedwig Eisenbarth
Author: James Hall ORCID iD

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