Pre- and postnatal influences on psychopathology in a clinical sample of school age children

Abstract

Objective: A possible relationship between high pregnancy stress and the child-s short duration of breastfeeding, and psychopathology have been reported in research. However, relationship of childhood psychopathology with various factors in pre and postnatal periods is under-researched in Turkish academic literature and the results are inconsistent. Besides, existing local studies have either focused on certain diagnostic groups or only used screening questionnaires in preschool age children. The aim of the present study was therefore, to examine the relationship of these factors with childhood internalizing-externalizing psychopathology in a clinical sample, where diagnoses were confirmed with semi-structured interviews and their dimensional examination was supported with a validated questionnaire.