Colloquium: Antenatal and perinatal determinants of behaviour in childhood and adolescence

Research investigating the impact of maternal exposure to risk in the prenatal period has only recently addressed child and adolescent psychological and behavioural outcomes. This presentation commences with an overview of developmental psychology and the developmental origins of health and disease, including a review of the original studies on nutritional deficiencies and schizophrenia that pioneered the field. Then the results of each of the studies from my PhD are presented, starting with the exposure to maternal psychosocial stress in pregnancy, and covering fetal exposure to maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy, alcohol intake during pregnancy, and gestational hypertension. Finally, common mechanisms linking prenatal exposures with later behavioural development through to adolescence are discussed and the implications summarised before a final comment on the future directions for investigation into the antenatal determinants of child and adolescent behaviour.