FASD: Association found between poor academic achievement and maternal drinking

Education records from the WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessment statewide testing program were compared with maternal alcohol consumption data. Credit: iStock

Researchers from WA and the UK have linked heavy drinking and binge drinking, even occasionally during pregnancy, to children's academic achievement in reading, writing and spelling; and this impact is related to the trimester in which the exposure occurred.

These results lend further support to other international studies which have found prenatal alcohol exposure increases the risk of a range of neurodevelopmental disorders, including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

Lead author Colleen O'Leary, from Curtin's Centre for Population Health Research, says this study is a first.

"This is the first population-based study that utilises linked cohort and state-wide education test data to examine the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on educational achievement," Dr O'Leary says.

The cohort of 4056 children aged 8-9 years-old were from the Randomly Ascertained Sample of Children born in Australia's Largest State study; a 10 per cent random sample of infants born in WA between 1995 and 1997.

FASD Indications

Information about maternal alcohol consumption was catergorised into dosage and pattern; low (1-2 standard drinks on occasion, less than 7 per week), moderate (3-4 standard drinks on occasion, 7 per week), binge drinking (more than 50g per occasion), and heavy drinking (more than 7 standard drinks per week).

They then matched this data with education records from the WA Literacy and Numeracy Assessment statewide testing program, and also examined absenteeism at these tests.

Resulting learning problems varied depending on the dose, timing, and drinking pattern of the prenatal alcohol exposure.

"Children exposed to heavy prenatal alcohol exposure during the first trimester were over twice as likely as comparison children to not achieve the reading benchmark," Dr O'Leary says.

"Prenatal exposure to occasional binge drinking in late pregnancy [second and/or third trimester] increased the risk of not achieving the benchmark for writing.

"Children of mothers binge drinking occasionally or drinking heavily at any stage during pregnancy were more likely to have been absent for the spelling test."

Dr O'Leary says results are particularly pertinent given the high rate of pregnancies reported to be unplanned – around 50 per cent – and thus associated risk of unintentional prenatal alcohol exposure.

While low or moderate levels of prenatal alcohol exposure was not associated with academic underachievement, Dr O'Leary stresses that other studies have demonstrated adverse offspring effects, even at very low doses.

As such, "we cannot conclusively state that any amount of alcohol is 'safe'."

She recommends exploring the impact of whether supportive family and school systems can improve academic achievement of children exposed prenatally to alcohol.

More information: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23837182

Sibling aggression, often dismissed, linked to poor mental health

"It's not fair!" " "You're not the boss of me." "She hit me!" "He started it." Fights between siblings – from toy-snatching to clandestine whacks to being banished from the bedroom – are so common they're often dismissed as simply part of growing up.

Yet a new study from researchers at the University of New Hampshire finds that sibling aggression is associated with significantly worse mental health in children and adolescents.

In some cases, effects of sibling aggression on mental health were the same as those of peer aggression.

Corinna Jenkins Tucker

"Even kids who reported just one instance had more mental health distress," says Corinna Jenkins Tucker, associate professor of family studies at UNH and lead author of the research, published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics.

"Our study shows that sibling aggression is not benign for children and adolescents, regardless of how severe or frequent."

The study, among the first to look at sibling aggression across a wide age and geographic range, is unique in its size and scope.

Tucker and her co-authors from UNH's Crimes against Children Research Center – center director and professor of sociology David Finkelhor, professor of sociology Heather Turner, and researcher Anne Shattuck – analyzed data from the center's National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), a national sample of 3,599 children, ages one month through 17.

David Finkelhor

The study looked at the effects of physical assault with and without a weapon or injury, property aggression like stealing something or breaking a siblings' things on purpose, and psychological aggression such as saying things that made a sibling feel bad, scared, or not wanted around.

The researchers found that of the 32 percent of children who reported experiencing one type of sibling victimization in the past year, mental health distress was greater for children (1 month to age 9) than for adolescents (age 10 – 17) who experienced mild sibling physical assault, but children and adolescents were similarly affected by other psychological or property aggression from siblings.

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More information: The study, "Association of sibling aggression with child and adolescent mental health," appears in the July 2013 issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Teachers declare: Boys suffer poor body image

Boys increasingly have low self-esteem about their body image, teachers warn.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers claims the promotion of ideal body images is reducing both boys' and girls' confidence in their own bodies.

Last year, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image recommended all children took part in compulsory body image and self-esteem lessons.

The union will discuss the issue of body image among pupils at its annual conference in Liverpool next week.

In a survey of 693 members across the UK, the union found 78% thought girls suffered low self-esteem and 51% thought boys had low confidence in their body image.

In addition, 59% of staff said that worries about body image made female pupils anxious and 30% said it caused anxiety in male pupils.

Some 55% said that girls were "ultra-sensitive" to comments about their appearance and 27% said boys took comments to heart.

Diets
Pressure to achieve the perfect body meant girls were likely to go on a diet, according to 54% of staff and boys were prone to start excessive exercise regimes, said 30% of those surveyed.

Asked where the pressure came from, 94% of those surveyed said they believed the media, including television, magazines, music videos, adverts and social media was the biggest influence on female pupils and also on male pupils (68%).

Peers of the same sex were also highlighted as a key cause of pressure on female pupils to look good by 83% of respondents and on male pupils by 54%.

A teacher at a secondary academy in Wandsworth, London, said: "I find that boys who are shorter than their peers are extremely sensitive and manifest either disruptive behaviour or are very withdrawn."

One early years teacher in England said: "I work with four to five-year-olds and some say things like, 'I can't eat cheese, it will make me fat!'"

A teacher at a secondary school in Northern Ireland said: "In my year 11 GCSE English class, the girls all openly admitted to feeling pressure about body image and many of the boys confessed to it too, although they said that usually they wouldn't admit to it affecting them.

A head of department at a secondary school in Exeter said: "Digital and social media are a nightmare with 'anonymous' sites that slate students in the most appalling terms on their appearance, personality and anything judge-able."

"Despite knowing about airbrushing, the girls still feel the need to aspire to unrealistic notions of beauty."

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