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Sowards, Hayley Anne

University of British Columbia

Psychiatric conditions in childhood are prevalent and persistent. The Canadian Pediatric Society estimates that 1 in 5 children and youth in Canada has a diagnosable mental health condition. An even greater number have emotional and behavioural problems that do not meet the criteria for clinical diagnosis but are nonetheless impairing. Emotional problems include depression, anxiety, and associated symptoms and behaviours, and are also known as internalizing problems. Behavioural problems include difficulties with attention, hyperactivity, conduct, aggression, and antisocial behaviour, and are also known as externalizing problems. Childhood emotional and behavioural problems are impairing to the child and their families from the moment they emerge. Moreover, children with emotional and behavioural problems are at 3- to 6-fold higher risk of psychiatric conditions in adolescence and adulthood, as well as of multiple adverse health, social, cognitive, and educational outcomes across the life course. Understanding the factors that shape the emergence and maintenance of emotional and behavioural problems in early childhood could therefore have both immediate and long-term benefits to children and families. Childhood emotional and behavioural problems emerge through the complex interplay of genes and environment. Genome-wide studies have identified genetic variants associated with childhood emotional and behavioural problems, but assessments of environmental factors have typically focused on a small number of factors, as opposed to the totality of the exposome. In this thesis, I decompose the variance of childhood emotional and behavioural problems into parts that are explained by the genome, by the exposome, and by their interplay using a multivariate analysis method. I apply this method to longitudinal data from over 1489 children participating in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study, who have completed multiple questionnaires on prenatal and postnatal environmental exposures. Symptoms of emotional and behavioural problems were assessed at age 5-years. While negligible variance was explained by the genome, understanding the genetic and non-genetic factors contributing to mental illness helps children and families accept diagnoses and motivates positive behaviour changes. This work provides evidence to feed these discussions, especially regarding the exposome, which will ultimately help us better support children and families managing psychiatric conditions.

Text

2024-07-08

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88588

Medical Genetics

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/