A study on mental health published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry reveals that one in 10 infants were born to mothers who consumed alcohol daily and two-thirds of children aged 12–13 years had parents who displayed low warmth or exhibited high hostility or anger. Photograph: Alamy
More than half of Australian infants have multiple risk factors for developing a mental illness by the time they are adults, a much higher amount than is currently recognised, a study from the University of South Australia has found.
The study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, is the first to have attempted to estimate the percentage of children between the ages of 0–13 years at-risk of developing adult mental illness.
The researchers used a 2013 review of longitudinal studies on child and adolescent determinants of adult mental illness to compile a list of evidence-based risk factors in childhood that may lead to mental illness.
These risks included genetic influences, hyperactivity, bullying, poor school performance, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and witnessing domestic violence, harsh discipline as well as divorce and separation, among others.
They then used the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which follows the development of 10,000 children and families from across the country, to estimate the prevalence of these risk factors in children up to 13 years old.
“At the earliest age, risk factors for adult mental illness are highly prevalent,” the study found.
“Even by infancy, risk factors for adult mental illness are highly prevalent, with 51.7% of infants having multiple risks.”
One in 10 infants were born to mothers who consumed alcohol daily and one in eight to mothers who smoked cigarettes daily during pregnancy, the study found, both risk factors for mental illness.
And 10.5% of infants were in families where the parents had separated, which increased to 18% in 10 to 11-year-olds. Two-thirds of children aged 12–13 years had parents who displayed low warmth or exhibited high hostility or anger, the study also found.
It also found that by the age of nine, more than 18% of children were exposed to more than five risk factors for developing a mental illness.
A co-author of the study and chair of health economics and social policy at the University of South Australia’s Centre for Population Health Research, Professor Leonie Segal, said the researchers wanted to quantify the amount of children at risk so appropriate funding for intervention services could be allocated by governments.
Source: More than half Australian infants have risk factors for adult mental illness
Leave A Comment