The relationship between prenatal stress and smoking,and ADHD in children - Essay Example

IF SMOKING AND STRESS DURING PREGNANCY CAUSE ADHD IN YOUNG CHILDREN, THEN PROSPECTIVE FATHERS MUST BE DOUBLY WATCHFUL INTRODUCTION The above title is a statement of caution derived from conclusions and deductions of a critique of reports. These reports are on researches into the relationship between prenatal stress and smoking, and ADHD in children. The reports are critical descriptions of approaches by different researchers into this relationship. In the critique of these reports, which follows shortly, the necessity of the statement will be established as a proven necessity. BACKGROUND OF RESEARCHERS Some of the researchers whose reports will be critiqued in this writing are Physician- Assistants Certified (PA-Cs) of the Directorate of Health and Social Care (DHSc) of the East Virginia Medical School. Some are PA-Cs of the Medical College of Ohio, while others have backgrounds in Psychological analysis, as researchers of the Department of Psychology of the Uppsala University, Sweden (Thomas G Parish 2004 p1). Since the PA-Cs have certifications testifying to their competence as Physician Assistants, and the Psychologically-oriented researchers have a background in Psychological analysis, their research results can tolerably be taken as fact rather than fiction, as premises on which conclusions and assertions can safely be based. AIM OF RESEARCH Both researches aim at establishing that maternal smoking and stress during pregnancy are related to ADHD in young children. TITLE OF RERSEARCH One of the researches is titled "Are Maternal Smoking and Stress during pregnancy related to ADHD symptoms in children" (Rodriguez and Bohlin 2005 p246), while the other is titled "Smoking contributes to the development of childhood ADHD" (Parish 2005 p1). ABSTRACT OF RESEARCH The researches reported, taken as a set, were minute and meticulous in their approaches. Though they had methodological inadequacies and generalisations (which raised doubts and uncertainties), the virtue of their observations from various perspectives, their repetitions of experiments, and their re-experimentations with different samples and proper timing -- these all made for the short-comings towards the establishment of the investigated relationship between prenatal smoking and stress, and ADHD in young children (Rodriguez and Bohlin 2005 p246-254; Parish 2005 p1-7). INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH ARTICLE The research reports, which this writing critiques, offer step-by-step presentations of the methodologies of various attempts at establishing a correlation between ADHD symptoms and prenatal smoking and stress. These presentations are more than step-by-step recounts; they are kinds of critiques in themselves. They highlight the plusses and minuses of the various researches, the limitations of their statistics and the imperfect speculations of their findings. Moreover (and further to the credit of this report), the observed limitations of the researches were always acknowledged, allowances were always given for variables whose effects were not altogether and undoubtedly established with statistics, and assertions, whose sources the researchers faithfully acknowledged), did not influence suggestions of necessities to investigate further. Therefore, this half-critique research report rejected half truths and did not readily embrace probabilities. Besides the presentation of research methodologies, there is in the research reports a critical exploring of the relationship between maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy and an increased incidence of childhood behaviour disorders, particularly ADHD. With their presentation and the exploring, both reports complement each other; what one omits, the other includes. METHODOLOGY The methodology of the first set of research was the collection and update of the data of a set of nulliparous Scandinavians on their first visit to a health clinic. Smoking and stress data were collected from them on the 12th, 20th, 28th, 32nd and 36th gestational weeks. Children were followed up at the age of seven (Rodriguez and Bohlin 2005 p2) For the second set of researches, however, the methodology was based on observation, deduction and critical evaluation. The attentiveness and socialisation of children whose mothers smoked prenatally were observed and compared with those of mothers who did not smoke prenatally; the behavioural tendencies of the children were noted, for boys and for girls, and deductions made; the physiological effects, specifically effects on the brain, of prenatal smoking were observed and conclusions reached, etc (Parish 2005 pp2-3) RESULTS For one research report, the results showed that stress and smoking during pregnancy were independently related to ADHD symptoms in children. Results of multiple regression analysis showed prenatal exposure to smoking (B = .16. p< .01) and stress (B=.18, p Read More