Smoking During Pregnancy and Bad Behavior in Kids are Related

“Persistent heavy smokers had a higher risk of having a boy with conduct problems than light smokers. For conduct problems in girls, any continuous smoking seemed to matter more than amount. Similarly, for hyperactivity-inattention problems both light and heavy smokers had similarly elevated risks compared to non-smokers.”

– Dr. Kate E. Pickett, University of York, Hull-York Medical School.

In United States, nearly 10% of the pregnant women smoke. Latest research study (dated November 4,2009) conducted in United Kingdom reports that kids of the women who smoked during pragnancy have high risks of behavioral problems. This article tries to gain further insight.

Knowledge Gained from the Research:

• The researchers found that smoking during pregnancy affected the boys more. They had higher risks of having behavior and lack of attention problems.
• The girls were found to be at risks of having behavior problem alone.
• An interesting finding was the girls of the mothers who quit smoking during pragnancy were in advantageous position compared to girls of the non smoker mothers.
• The risks of getting behavior problems in the former group was less when compared to the latter group.
• This implies that the ability to quitting smoking is a matter of personal temperament.
• The state of pregnancy is no why related to the inability to quit smoking.
• More the amount of cigarettes smoked, it is the continuous act of smoking during pragnancy which poses the greatest threat to the kids.

Statistics of the research study: The researchers found that kids as young as 3 year old were also affected by smoking during pregnancy. To verify the facts, 13,000 3-year-old boys and girls in the UK were made the part of the study. Information like parents marital status, ethnicity, economic status, education level, financial difficulties and maternal smoking, drinking and drug habits were gathered. The mothers were asked questions about their children like whether they get easily distracted, are prone to tantrums, fight with other kids, cheat, lie or steal. Based on these factors, the following data was available:

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