Preschool Social Participation, the Impact of Early Life Stress and Parental Health

ABSTRACT

In this article, the association between parental and professional caregivers’ perceptions of early life stress (ELS) and the level of preschool social participation was examined, as was the possible moderating effect of parental health. In a community-based study, both parents and professional caregivers of 346 children aged 3 years provided information about child and environmental factors. Results showed that children with ELS more often experienced distress (OR 1.3, p < 0.001), had more peer problems (SDQ: B=0.1, p < 0.01), and more often received extra support according to professional caregivers (OR 1.3, p < 0.01). Parents more often reported concerns (OR=1.3, p < 0.001), a greater number of concerns (B=0.3, p < 0.001), and perceived more difficulties in parenting (“parenting” VAS: B=−2.5, p < 0.001). Associations were stronger for children of parents with “poor health”. For personalized family-centred health care, Preventive Child Health Care should systematically explore caregivers’ perceptions and concerns of ELS, parental health and child social participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Early life stress
• parental health
• preschool social participation
• PEDS
• personalized preventive child health care

Acknowledgements

Parents, professional caregivers and colleagues are kindly thanked for their participation. Thanks to Frances Page Glascoe for permission to use the PEDS and thanks also to Elena Syurina for permission to use Figure 1.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by ZonMw, the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development [grant number 7125.0001].

Notes on contributors

B. M. Doove

Bernice Doove is a medical specialist in Community Health and Social Medicine in the field of Child and Youth Health Care. She works as a medical doctor in Maastricht and participates as a PhD candidate in the Academic Collaborative Centre for Public Health Limburg.

B. A. A. H. Schiffelers

Barbara Schiffelers is a general practitioner, currently working in a general practice in Heerlen.

C. Lukkien

Carlyn Lukkien is a general practitioner resident, currently working in a general practice in Eindhoven.

J. van Os

Jim van Os is professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Public Mental Health, and chair of the Division Neuroscience at Utrecht University Medical Centre. His focus is on the clinical, developmental and genetic epidemiology of (early states of) mental disorders and public mental health.

F. J. M. Feron

Frans Feron is emeritus professor of Social Medicine, in particular Child and Adolescent Health, and associated with the Department of Social Medicine, Maastricht University. Areas of interest include: neurodevelopmental disorders, public health genomics and child maltreatment.

M. Drukker

Marjan Drukker is a senior epidemiologist at the Department of Psychiatry, School for Mental Health and NeuroScience (MHeNS), Maastricht University. Her areas of interest are gene- environment interactions, networks of psychological symptoms in psychiatry, and Public Health.