Authors:
Robinson M, Whitehouse AJO, Jacoby P, Mattes E, Sawyer MG, Keelan JA, Hickey M
Authors notes:
PLoS ONE. 2013;8(4):e59991
Keywords:
Testosterone, cord blood, child behaviour, Raine Study
Abstract:
Antenatal testosterone exposure influences fetal neurodevelopment and gender-role behavior in postnatal life and may contribute to differences in developmental psychopathology during childhood.
We prospectively measured the associations between umbilical cord blood testosterone levels at birth and childhood behavioral development in both males and females from a large population based sample.
Boys had higher mean CBCL T-scores than girls across all ages of follow-up.
There was no significant relationship between cord blood BioT quartiles and CBCL total, internalizing and externalizing T-scores at age two or five to ten combined.
In the syndrome score analyses, higher BioT quartiles were associated with significantly lower scores for attention problems for boys at age five, eight and ten, and greater withdrawal symptoms in pre-school girls (age five).
We did not identify a consistent relationship between antenatal testosterone exposure and total, internalizing or externalizing behavioral difficulties in childhood.
Higher umbilical cord BioT levels were associated with lower scores for attention problems in boys up to 10 years and more withdrawn behavior in 5-year-old girls; however, these findings were not consistent across ages and require further investigation in a larger sample.