Umbilical cord blood testosterone and childhood internalizing and externalizing behavior: a prospective study

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Pediatric Endocrinology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Prenatal hormone exposure, particularly testosterone, is hypothesized to influence fetal neurodevelopment and subsequent childhood behavior.
• Differences in developmental psychopathology may be partly explained by variations in antenatal androgen levels.
• Understanding these associations is crucial for identifying early markers of behavioral development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To prospectively examine the relationship between umbilical cord blood testosterone levels and childhood behavioral development in males and females.
• To investigate associations between bioavailable testosterone (BioT) concentrations at birth and behavioral outcomes measured via the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).
• To determine if antenatal testosterone exposure predicts total, internalizing, externalizing, or specific syndrome scores on the CBCL.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, including 430 females and 429 males.
• Measured total and calculated bioavailable testosterone (BioT) in umbilical cord blood using mass spectrometry.
• Assessed childhood behavioral development using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) at ages two, five, eight, and ten years, analyzed with linear regression models.

Main Results:

• Boys exhibited higher mean CBCL T-scores than girls across all follow-up ages.
• No significant association was found between cord blood BioT quartiles and overall (total, internalizing, externalizing) CBCL scores at age two or combined ages five to ten.
• Higher BioT quartiles correlated with lower attention problem scores in boys at ages five, eight, and ten, and increased withdrawal symptoms in five-year-old girls.

Conclusions:

• Antenatal testosterone exposure did not show a consistent relationship with broad categories of childhood behavioral difficulties (total, internalizing, externalizing).
• Specific, age-dependent associations were observed: higher prenatal BioT linked to reduced attention problems in boys and increased withdrawal in young girls.
• These nuanced findings require further validation in larger cohorts due to inconsistencies across ages and developmental periods.