Ragnhild Brandlistuen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Ragnhild Brandlistuen

Research paper thumbnail of T93. Polygenic Scores for Mental Disorders and Adolescent Level of Mental Distress During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

European Neuropsychopharmacology, Oct 1, 2022

Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on ... more Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

Research paper thumbnail of Association between work situation and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: prospective cohort study in Norway

BMJ Open, Apr 1, 2022

Objectives To estimate the impact of being laid off from work, having to work from home or having... more Objectives To estimate the impact of being laid off from work, having to work from home or having been diagnosed with COVID-19 on self-reported satisfaction with life. Design Nationwide population-based cohort study. Setting Norway. Participants We followed more than 80 000 participants in an ongoing cohort study, the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed current life satisfaction in April and again in September/October 2020 for subjects whose work situation and infection status had changed. Main outcome measures Self-reported satisfaction with life, using a scale from 0 (worst) to 10 (best). We analysed the scale both continuously and as a binary variable (<or ≥6). Results Temporary and permanent layoffs, working from a home-based office, and getting a COVID-19 diagnosis were all associated with modestly, but significantly lower concurrent life satisfaction, both in the total on a population level and for subjects experiencing a change in job status between spring and autumn. The associations with change in work situation were stronger for men. For men with permanent job loss, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for low life satisfaction (<6) was 3.2 (95% CI 2.4 to 4.2) in April and 4.9 (95% CI 3.5 to 6.9) in autumn. Among all, a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with an adjusted OR for low life satisfaction of 1.9 (95% CI 1.6 to 2.3) in spring. The strength of associations between work situation and life satisfaction did not vary much across socioeconomic strata, but layoffs were more common among those with low education. Conclusion Layoffs, home office and infection status had clear impact on the quality of life as measured with a global life satisfaction scale. These findings suggest that social differentials in quality of life, are increasing during the pandemic.

Research paper thumbnail of Mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency and symptoms of emotional distress and depression in pregnancy and six months postpartum – Results from a large pregnancy cohort

Journal of Affective Disorders

Research paper thumbnail of Estimating the Strength of Associations Between Prenatal Diet Quality and Child Developmental Outcomes: Results From a Large Prospective Pregnancy Cohort Study

American Journal of Epidemiology, 2019

Our aim in this study was to estimate the strength of associations between prenatal diet quality ... more Our aim in this study was to estimate the strength of associations between prenatal diet quality and child behavioral, language, and motor functions in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (1999–2008). We created a prenatal diet quality index (PDQI) based on adherence to Norwegian dietary guidelines. Child outcomes were defined as sum scores on the Child Behavior Checklist, the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, and the Child Development Index at ages 18, 36, and 60 months. Using a longitudinal cohort study design and Bayesian hierarchical modeling, we estimated association strengths using inverse probability weighting to account for selection bias. In total, 27,529 mother-child pairs were eligible for inclusion. A 1–standard-deviation increase in PDQI score was associated with an absolute reduction in outcome sum scores of 0.02–0.21 and a 3%–7% relative decrease, with larger decreases seen for language and motor functions than for behavioral functions. PDQI scores were inversely...

Research paper thumbnail of The association between work situation and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: prospective cohort study in Norway

medRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Dec 16, 2020

doi: medRxiv preprint NOTE: This preprint reports new research that has not been certified by pee... more doi: medRxiv preprint NOTE: This preprint reports new research that has not been certified by peer review and should not be used to guide clinical practice.

Research paper thumbnail of Children's mental health: The role of multiple risks and child care quality

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, May 1, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Teachers’ competence promote close relationships to children with externalising problems and conflictual relationships

Educational Psychology, Apr 20, 2022

Health and Development. It was part of the MoBaKinder-project supported by the Norwegian Research... more Health and Development. It was part of the MoBaKinder-project supported by the Norwegian Research Council through the BEDREHELSE programme. I would like to thank many people for contributing to my completion of this project. First, I thank all the participants in MoBa for completing all the questionnaires. There would not be a project without you. I would also like to thank University of Oslo for the opportunity to submit this thesis. My deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor Mari Vaage Wang and co-supervisor Espen Røysamb. Mari, you have been the rock in this project, and everything from a supervisor to a friend. I have learnt so much from you! Thank you for always staying positive, yet realistic; for being fun and casual, yet "green" enough to get things done; and more than anything for your ability to motivate and encourage me even when life happens and challenges the original plans. Espen, I want to thank you for your open-minded views, beneficial comments, and engagement. I highly appreciate your pedagogical ways of discussing topics and suggestions. I want to thank the whole MoBaKinder crew: Mari, Ragnhild, Nina, Silje, Erik, and Elise. You have been a great team for help, guidance and discussions, and for hiking, skiing, dining and laughing, and always leaving the door open. Thank you Silje, for your "sprintcalendar" counting down the final days with chocolate and sweets. To the wider project group: thank you for your great interest and engagement in project-meetings, and in particular Ratib and Thomas for co-authorships on papers. Your engagement has been encouraging and highly valuable. To the department director Heidi Aase and all my colleagues at NIPH, Department of Child Health and Development. Thank you for making a great atmosphere at work, especially around the lunch table and at "waffle and workout"-Fridays. To my fellow PhD-students at NIPH, especially Thea, Maria, Anne Kristine, Elise, Nina, and Linn. Thank you for travelling this journey together. I believe a team of peers like you to share this experience with have been essential in these strange years. I am lucky to have spent these years with you at the office, in seminars, on screen, at lunch, drinks, walks, ice cream breaks and joy. Special thanks to my co-inhabitants of the corner office: Anne II Kristine and Maria. Thank you for being great colleagues and wonderful friends both at NIPH and outside. My sincere gratitude to my brilliant family, particularly Rolf, Herdis and Karina. Thank you for giving me a safe and warm home and childhood; for always being cheerful, supportive and caring; and for being favourite catering, travel agency and companions, car rental, and entertainment crew. Thank you to all my wonderful friends, including Gjeng, for being superb friends, giving me plenty of opportunities to reload, enjoy new travels, experiences, sports, feasts and fun. You make life great! Thank you for also engaging in the topic of my work. Additional thanks to Jess for proof reading. This journey has, as most journeys, not been a walk in the park straight from start to finish. The way-too-loyal covid-virus with endless days in lockdown and home office made it more clear than ever how highly I appreciate my family, friends and closest colleagues. Thank you all for walking me, eating and drinking with me, climbing, calling, skiing, swimming, walking a little more perhaps to Vettakollen, playing tennis, being patient, giving me time to recover, walking even more, and for being creative, enthusiastic, fun and inclusive. To all of you for always engaging in and trying hard to understand both my victories and deepest frustration within this academic research universe.

Research paper thumbnail of Association of prenatal exposure to benzodiazepines and child internalizing problems: A sibling-controlled cohort study

PLOS ONE, Jul 26, 2017

Background During pregnancy, many women experience sleep problems and anxiety that require treatm... more Background During pregnancy, many women experience sleep problems and anxiety that require treatment. The long-term safety for the child of maternal benzodiazepine (BZD) and z-hypnotic use during pregnancy remains controversial. Method We conducted a cohort and a sibling control study using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Data on use of BZD and z-hypnotics, internalizing and externalizing outcomes, and covariates were collected from mothers at gestational weeks 17 and 30 and when children were 0.5, 1.5, and 3 years of age. The total sample consisted of 71,996 children (19,297 siblings) at 1.5 years and 55,081 children (13,779 siblings) at 3 years. Shortterm use was defined as use in one pregnancy period only. Long-term use was defined as use in two or more pregnancy periods. Linear full cohort random-effect and sibling-matched fixed-effect regression models were used to compare internalizing and externalizing behavior in children prenatally exposed compared to those unexposed in the full cohort of pregnancies accounting for family clusters, as well as within sibling clusters comparing pregnancies with discordant exposures. Propensity score (PS) adjustment included variables on indication for use (sleep problems, symptoms of anxiety and depression) and other potential confounding factors. Results Long-term prenatal exposure to BZD or z-hypnotics was associated with increased internalizing behavior in crude cohort analyses and at age 1.5 years after PS adjustment in siblingmatched fixed-effect models [β 0.60, 95% confidence interval 0.17-0.95]. Analyses on specific drug groups showed that prenatal exposure to BZD-anxiolytics was associated with

Research paper thumbnail of The role of early social play behaviors and language skills for shy children’s later internalizing difficulties in school

Frontiers in Psychiatry, Mar 1, 2023

The role of early social play behaviors and language skills for shy children's later internalizin... more The role of early social play behaviors and language skills for shy children's later internalizing difficulties in school.

Research paper thumbnail of Skoleferdigheter og psykisk helse hos 8-åringer. Betydningen av pedagogisk praksis i barnehagen og læringsmiljø i skolen

Research paper thumbnail of Maternal Anxiety and Infants Birth weight and Length of Gestation. A sibling design

Authorea (Authorea), Aug 7, 2020

Background: The overall aim of this study is to examine the effect of prenatal maternal anxiety o... more Background: The overall aim of this study is to examine the effect of prenatal maternal anxiety on birthweight and gestational age, controlling for shared family confounding using a sibling comparison design. Methods: The data on 77,970 mothers and their 91,165 children from the population-based Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study and data on 12,480 pairs of siblings were used in this study. The mothers filled out questionnaires for each unique pregnancy, at 17 th and 30 th week in pregnancy. Gestational age and birth weight was extracted from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN). Associations between prenatal maternal anxiety (measured across the 17 th and 30 th weeks) and birth outcomes (birthweight and gestational age) were examined using linear regression with adjustment for shared-family confounding in a sibling comparison design. Results: In the population level analysis the maternal anxiety score during pregnancy was inversely associated with new-born's birthweight (Beta =-63.8 95% CI:-92.6,-35.0) and gestational age (Beta =-1.52, 95% CI:-2.15,-0.89) after adjustment for several covariates. The association of the maternal anxiety score with birthweight was no longer significant, but remained for maternal anxiety at 30 th week with gestational age (Beta =-1.11, 95% CI:-1.82,-0.4) after further adjusting for the shared-family confounding in the sibling comparison design. Conclusion: No association was found for maternal prenatal anxiety with birth weight after multiple covariates and family environment were controlled. However, there was an association between prenatal maternal anxiety at 30 th week only with gestational age, suggesting a timing effect for maternal anxiety in third trimester.

Research paper thumbnail of Indirect Genetic Influences on Mental Distress in Mother-Father-Offspring Trios During the COVID-19 Lockdown

European Neuropsychopharmacology, Oct 1, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring the Role of Teacher–Child Relationships in the Longitudinal Associations Between Childhood Shyness and Social Functioning at School: A Prospective Cohort Study

School Mental Health, Apr 9, 2022

The goal of this study was to explore longitudinally the protective role of relationships with ea... more The goal of this study was to explore longitudinally the protective role of relationships with early childhood and education care (ECEC) teachers for shy children's social functioning at age 5 and 8 years. Participants were N = 7343 children from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child (MoBa) study, a prospective longitudinal cohort study in Norway. Measures included maternal rating of child shyness at age 18 months, 3 and 5 years, ECEC teacher ratings of teacher-child relationships and maternal ratings of child peer play behaviors at age 5 years, and teacher ratings of child social competence at age 8 years. We conducted latent moderated-mediation analyses within a SEM framework. Among the results, childhood shyness was negatively associated with social functioning. However, significant indirect and moderation effects were also found, with a pattern suggesting that early positive teacher-child relationships have a buffering influence on shy children's risk for social difficulties.

Research paper thumbnail of The effect of special educational assistance in early childhood education and care on psycho-social difficulties in elementary school children

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, Feb 24, 2022

Background: Three to seven percent of pre-schoolers have developmental problems or child psychiat... more Background: Three to seven percent of pre-schoolers have developmental problems or child psychiatric disorders. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) indicate that interventions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) improve long-term outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is unknown if such effects generalize beyond the well-structured context of RCTs and to children who may not have a disadvantaged background but have developmental problems or psychiatric disorders. Methods: We used data from the population-based Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study, recruiting pregnant women from 1999 to 2009, with child follow-up from ages 6, 18, and 36 months to ages 5, 7, and 8 years. This sub-study included 2499 children with developmental problems or psychiatric disorders at age five. We investigated the effects of special educational assistance at age five on mother-reported internalizing, externalizing, and communication problems at age eight. We analysed bias due to treatment by indication with directed acyclic graphs, adjusted for treatment predictors to reduce bias, and estimated effects in different patient groups and outcome domains with a hierarchical Bayesian model. Results: In the adjusted analysis, pre-schoolers who received special educational assistance had on average by 0.1 (0.04-0.16) standardised mean deviation fewer psycho-social difficulties in elementary school. Conclusion: In a sample of children from mostly higher socioeconomic backgrounds we estimate a positive effects of special educational assistance during the transition from preschool to the school years. It may therefore be considered as an intervention for pre-schoolers with developmental or behaviour problems. More research with improved measurements of treatment and outcomes is needed to solidify the findings and identify success factors for the implementation of special educational assistance in ECEC.

Research paper thumbnail of Incidence rates of treated mental disorders before and during the COVID-19 pandemic - a nationwide study comparing trends in the period 2015 to 2021

Background: There is a concern that exposure to psychosocial stressors during the COVID-19 pandem... more Background: There is a concern that exposure to psychosocial stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to a higher incidence of mental disorders. Thus, this study aimed to compare trends in incidence rates of depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders in primary- and specialist health care before (2015-2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). Methods: We used aggregated population registry data to calculate incidence rates of mental disorders from primary (The Norwegian Control and Payment of Health Reimbursement Registry (KUHR)) and specialist (The Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR)) health care. The analyses included all Norwegian residents aged 18-65 during the study period. Incident cases were defined as having no previous registration with the same mental disorder in KUHR (from 2006) or NPR (from 2008). We used linear prediction models and mean models to compare inci...

Research paper thumbnail of Intergenerational effects of parental educational attainment on parenting and childhood educational outcomes: Evidence from MoBa using within-family Mendelian randomization

The intergenerational transmission of educational attainment from parents to their children is on... more The intergenerational transmission of educational attainment from parents to their children is one of the most important and studied relationships in social science. Longitudinal studies have found strong associations between parents’ and their children’s educational outcomes, which could be due to the effects of parents. Here we provide new evidence about whether parents’ educational attainment affects their parenting behaviours and children’s early educational outcomes using within-family Mendelian randomization and data from 40,907 genotyped parent-child trios from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort (MoBa) study. We found evidence suggesting that parents’ educational attainment affects their children’s educational outcomes from age 5 to 14. More studies are needed to provide more samples of parent-child trios and assess the potential consequences of selection bias and grandparental effects.

Research paper thumbnail of Mental distress among Norwegian adults during the Covid-19 pandemic: predictors of initial response and subsequent trajectories

Background: Understanding factors associated with mental distress during a pandemic is imperative... more Background: Understanding factors associated with mental distress during a pandemic is imperative for planning interventions to reduce the negative mental health impact of future crises. Our aim was to identify factors associated with change in levels of mental distress in the Norwegian adult population at the onset of the Covid–19 pandemic, relative to pre-pandemic levels, and with longitudinal changes in mental distress until vaccination against Covid–19 became widespread in Norway (the first 1.5 years of the pandemic). Methods: The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is a prospective longitudinal study with baseline recruitment from 1999-2009. Baseline characteristics and eight waves of data collection during the pandemic (between March 2020 and September 2021) were used for this analysis. Mental distress was measured with the 5–item version of Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL–5). A piecewise latent growth model was fitted to identify initial change in mental d...

Research paper thumbnail of Contact with primary care physicians among adults with pre-existing common mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic: a registry-based study from Norway

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with pre-existing mental health problems ma... more Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with pre-existing mental health problems may have experienced additional stress, which could worsen symptoms or trigger relapse. Objective: To investigate if the number of consultations with general practitioners (GPs) among individuals with a pre-existing common mental health problem during the pandemic differed from pre-pandemic years. Methods: Data on consultations with GPs among 18-65-year-olds registered with common mental health problems in 2017-2021 were retrieved from the Norwegian Control and Payment of Health Reimbursement register. Based on data from the pre-pandemic years (2017-2019), we predicted the number of consultations per week for depression, anxiety disorder, phobia/obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders during the pandemic (March 2020-December 2021) among individuals with pre-existing mental health problems. The forecasted and observed trends in GP con...

Research paper thumbnail of Number of pregnant women reporting use of BZDs or z-hypnotics<sup>a</sup>

Research paper thumbnail of SJP944740_Supplemental_Tables – Supplemental material for Gender gaps in preschool age: A study of behavior, neurodevelopment and pre-academic skills

Supplemental material, SJP944740_Supplemental_Tables for Gender gaps in preschool age: A study of... more Supplemental material, SJP944740_Supplemental_Tables for Gender gaps in preschool age: A study of behavior, neurodevelopment and pre-academic skills by Ragnhild E. Brandlistuen, Martin Flatø, Camilla Stoltenberg, Siri S. Helland and Mari V. Wang in Scandinavian Journal of Public Health

Research paper thumbnail of T93. Polygenic Scores for Mental Disorders and Adolescent Level of Mental Distress During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic

European Neuropsychopharmacology, Oct 1, 2022

Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on ... more Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre-including this research content-immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

Research paper thumbnail of Association between work situation and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: prospective cohort study in Norway

BMJ Open, Apr 1, 2022

Objectives To estimate the impact of being laid off from work, having to work from home or having... more Objectives To estimate the impact of being laid off from work, having to work from home or having been diagnosed with COVID-19 on self-reported satisfaction with life. Design Nationwide population-based cohort study. Setting Norway. Participants We followed more than 80 000 participants in an ongoing cohort study, the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analysed current life satisfaction in April and again in September/October 2020 for subjects whose work situation and infection status had changed. Main outcome measures Self-reported satisfaction with life, using a scale from 0 (worst) to 10 (best). We analysed the scale both continuously and as a binary variable (<or ≥6). Results Temporary and permanent layoffs, working from a home-based office, and getting a COVID-19 diagnosis were all associated with modestly, but significantly lower concurrent life satisfaction, both in the total on a population level and for subjects experiencing a change in job status between spring and autumn. The associations with change in work situation were stronger for men. For men with permanent job loss, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for low life satisfaction (<6) was 3.2 (95% CI 2.4 to 4.2) in April and 4.9 (95% CI 3.5 to 6.9) in autumn. Among all, a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with an adjusted OR for low life satisfaction of 1.9 (95% CI 1.6 to 2.3) in spring. The strength of associations between work situation and life satisfaction did not vary much across socioeconomic strata, but layoffs were more common among those with low education. Conclusion Layoffs, home office and infection status had clear impact on the quality of life as measured with a global life satisfaction scale. These findings suggest that social differentials in quality of life, are increasing during the pandemic.

Research paper thumbnail of Mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency and symptoms of emotional distress and depression in pregnancy and six months postpartum – Results from a large pregnancy cohort

Journal of Affective Disorders

Research paper thumbnail of Estimating the Strength of Associations Between Prenatal Diet Quality and Child Developmental Outcomes: Results From a Large Prospective Pregnancy Cohort Study

American Journal of Epidemiology, 2019

Our aim in this study was to estimate the strength of associations between prenatal diet quality ... more Our aim in this study was to estimate the strength of associations between prenatal diet quality and child behavioral, language, and motor functions in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (1999–2008). We created a prenatal diet quality index (PDQI) based on adherence to Norwegian dietary guidelines. Child outcomes were defined as sum scores on the Child Behavior Checklist, the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, and the Child Development Index at ages 18, 36, and 60 months. Using a longitudinal cohort study design and Bayesian hierarchical modeling, we estimated association strengths using inverse probability weighting to account for selection bias. In total, 27,529 mother-child pairs were eligible for inclusion. A 1–standard-deviation increase in PDQI score was associated with an absolute reduction in outcome sum scores of 0.02–0.21 and a 3%–7% relative decrease, with larger decreases seen for language and motor functions than for behavioral functions. PDQI scores were inversely...

Research paper thumbnail of The association between work situation and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: prospective cohort study in Norway

medRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Dec 16, 2020

doi: medRxiv preprint NOTE: This preprint reports new research that has not been certified by pee... more doi: medRxiv preprint NOTE: This preprint reports new research that has not been certified by peer review and should not be used to guide clinical practice.

Research paper thumbnail of Children's mental health: The role of multiple risks and child care quality

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, May 1, 2023

Research paper thumbnail of Teachers’ competence promote close relationships to children with externalising problems and conflictual relationships

Educational Psychology, Apr 20, 2022

Health and Development. It was part of the MoBaKinder-project supported by the Norwegian Research... more Health and Development. It was part of the MoBaKinder-project supported by the Norwegian Research Council through the BEDREHELSE programme. I would like to thank many people for contributing to my completion of this project. First, I thank all the participants in MoBa for completing all the questionnaires. There would not be a project without you. I would also like to thank University of Oslo for the opportunity to submit this thesis. My deepest gratitude goes to my supervisor Mari Vaage Wang and co-supervisor Espen Røysamb. Mari, you have been the rock in this project, and everything from a supervisor to a friend. I have learnt so much from you! Thank you for always staying positive, yet realistic; for being fun and casual, yet "green" enough to get things done; and more than anything for your ability to motivate and encourage me even when life happens and challenges the original plans. Espen, I want to thank you for your open-minded views, beneficial comments, and engagement. I highly appreciate your pedagogical ways of discussing topics and suggestions. I want to thank the whole MoBaKinder crew: Mari, Ragnhild, Nina, Silje, Erik, and Elise. You have been a great team for help, guidance and discussions, and for hiking, skiing, dining and laughing, and always leaving the door open. Thank you Silje, for your "sprintcalendar" counting down the final days with chocolate and sweets. To the wider project group: thank you for your great interest and engagement in project-meetings, and in particular Ratib and Thomas for co-authorships on papers. Your engagement has been encouraging and highly valuable. To the department director Heidi Aase and all my colleagues at NIPH, Department of Child Health and Development. Thank you for making a great atmosphere at work, especially around the lunch table and at "waffle and workout"-Fridays. To my fellow PhD-students at NIPH, especially Thea, Maria, Anne Kristine, Elise, Nina, and Linn. Thank you for travelling this journey together. I believe a team of peers like you to share this experience with have been essential in these strange years. I am lucky to have spent these years with you at the office, in seminars, on screen, at lunch, drinks, walks, ice cream breaks and joy. Special thanks to my co-inhabitants of the corner office: Anne II Kristine and Maria. Thank you for being great colleagues and wonderful friends both at NIPH and outside. My sincere gratitude to my brilliant family, particularly Rolf, Herdis and Karina. Thank you for giving me a safe and warm home and childhood; for always being cheerful, supportive and caring; and for being favourite catering, travel agency and companions, car rental, and entertainment crew. Thank you to all my wonderful friends, including Gjeng, for being superb friends, giving me plenty of opportunities to reload, enjoy new travels, experiences, sports, feasts and fun. You make life great! Thank you for also engaging in the topic of my work. Additional thanks to Jess for proof reading. This journey has, as most journeys, not been a walk in the park straight from start to finish. The way-too-loyal covid-virus with endless days in lockdown and home office made it more clear than ever how highly I appreciate my family, friends and closest colleagues. Thank you all for walking me, eating and drinking with me, climbing, calling, skiing, swimming, walking a little more perhaps to Vettakollen, playing tennis, being patient, giving me time to recover, walking even more, and for being creative, enthusiastic, fun and inclusive. To all of you for always engaging in and trying hard to understand both my victories and deepest frustration within this academic research universe.

Research paper thumbnail of Association of prenatal exposure to benzodiazepines and child internalizing problems: A sibling-controlled cohort study

PLOS ONE, Jul 26, 2017

Background During pregnancy, many women experience sleep problems and anxiety that require treatm... more Background During pregnancy, many women experience sleep problems and anxiety that require treatment. The long-term safety for the child of maternal benzodiazepine (BZD) and z-hypnotic use during pregnancy remains controversial. Method We conducted a cohort and a sibling control study using data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Data on use of BZD and z-hypnotics, internalizing and externalizing outcomes, and covariates were collected from mothers at gestational weeks 17 and 30 and when children were 0.5, 1.5, and 3 years of age. The total sample consisted of 71,996 children (19,297 siblings) at 1.5 years and 55,081 children (13,779 siblings) at 3 years. Shortterm use was defined as use in one pregnancy period only. Long-term use was defined as use in two or more pregnancy periods. Linear full cohort random-effect and sibling-matched fixed-effect regression models were used to compare internalizing and externalizing behavior in children prenatally exposed compared to those unexposed in the full cohort of pregnancies accounting for family clusters, as well as within sibling clusters comparing pregnancies with discordant exposures. Propensity score (PS) adjustment included variables on indication for use (sleep problems, symptoms of anxiety and depression) and other potential confounding factors. Results Long-term prenatal exposure to BZD or z-hypnotics was associated with increased internalizing behavior in crude cohort analyses and at age 1.5 years after PS adjustment in siblingmatched fixed-effect models [β 0.60, 95% confidence interval 0.17-0.95]. Analyses on specific drug groups showed that prenatal exposure to BZD-anxiolytics was associated with

Research paper thumbnail of The role of early social play behaviors and language skills for shy children’s later internalizing difficulties in school

Frontiers in Psychiatry, Mar 1, 2023

The role of early social play behaviors and language skills for shy children's later internalizin... more The role of early social play behaviors and language skills for shy children's later internalizing difficulties in school.

Research paper thumbnail of Skoleferdigheter og psykisk helse hos 8-åringer. Betydningen av pedagogisk praksis i barnehagen og læringsmiljø i skolen

Research paper thumbnail of Maternal Anxiety and Infants Birth weight and Length of Gestation. A sibling design

Authorea (Authorea), Aug 7, 2020

Background: The overall aim of this study is to examine the effect of prenatal maternal anxiety o... more Background: The overall aim of this study is to examine the effect of prenatal maternal anxiety on birthweight and gestational age, controlling for shared family confounding using a sibling comparison design. Methods: The data on 77,970 mothers and their 91,165 children from the population-based Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study and data on 12,480 pairs of siblings were used in this study. The mothers filled out questionnaires for each unique pregnancy, at 17 th and 30 th week in pregnancy. Gestational age and birth weight was extracted from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN). Associations between prenatal maternal anxiety (measured across the 17 th and 30 th weeks) and birth outcomes (birthweight and gestational age) were examined using linear regression with adjustment for shared-family confounding in a sibling comparison design. Results: In the population level analysis the maternal anxiety score during pregnancy was inversely associated with new-born's birthweight (Beta =-63.8 95% CI:-92.6,-35.0) and gestational age (Beta =-1.52, 95% CI:-2.15,-0.89) after adjustment for several covariates. The association of the maternal anxiety score with birthweight was no longer significant, but remained for maternal anxiety at 30 th week with gestational age (Beta =-1.11, 95% CI:-1.82,-0.4) after further adjusting for the shared-family confounding in the sibling comparison design. Conclusion: No association was found for maternal prenatal anxiety with birth weight after multiple covariates and family environment were controlled. However, there was an association between prenatal maternal anxiety at 30 th week only with gestational age, suggesting a timing effect for maternal anxiety in third trimester.

Research paper thumbnail of Indirect Genetic Influences on Mental Distress in Mother-Father-Offspring Trios During the COVID-19 Lockdown

European Neuropsychopharmacology, Oct 1, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring the Role of Teacher–Child Relationships in the Longitudinal Associations Between Childhood Shyness and Social Functioning at School: A Prospective Cohort Study

School Mental Health, Apr 9, 2022

The goal of this study was to explore longitudinally the protective role of relationships with ea... more The goal of this study was to explore longitudinally the protective role of relationships with early childhood and education care (ECEC) teachers for shy children's social functioning at age 5 and 8 years. Participants were N = 7343 children from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child (MoBa) study, a prospective longitudinal cohort study in Norway. Measures included maternal rating of child shyness at age 18 months, 3 and 5 years, ECEC teacher ratings of teacher-child relationships and maternal ratings of child peer play behaviors at age 5 years, and teacher ratings of child social competence at age 8 years. We conducted latent moderated-mediation analyses within a SEM framework. Among the results, childhood shyness was negatively associated with social functioning. However, significant indirect and moderation effects were also found, with a pattern suggesting that early positive teacher-child relationships have a buffering influence on shy children's risk for social difficulties.

Research paper thumbnail of The effect of special educational assistance in early childhood education and care on psycho-social difficulties in elementary school children

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, Feb 24, 2022

Background: Three to seven percent of pre-schoolers have developmental problems or child psychiat... more Background: Three to seven percent of pre-schoolers have developmental problems or child psychiatric disorders. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) indicate that interventions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) improve long-term outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. It is unknown if such effects generalize beyond the well-structured context of RCTs and to children who may not have a disadvantaged background but have developmental problems or psychiatric disorders. Methods: We used data from the population-based Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study, recruiting pregnant women from 1999 to 2009, with child follow-up from ages 6, 18, and 36 months to ages 5, 7, and 8 years. This sub-study included 2499 children with developmental problems or psychiatric disorders at age five. We investigated the effects of special educational assistance at age five on mother-reported internalizing, externalizing, and communication problems at age eight. We analysed bias due to treatment by indication with directed acyclic graphs, adjusted for treatment predictors to reduce bias, and estimated effects in different patient groups and outcome domains with a hierarchical Bayesian model. Results: In the adjusted analysis, pre-schoolers who received special educational assistance had on average by 0.1 (0.04-0.16) standardised mean deviation fewer psycho-social difficulties in elementary school. Conclusion: In a sample of children from mostly higher socioeconomic backgrounds we estimate a positive effects of special educational assistance during the transition from preschool to the school years. It may therefore be considered as an intervention for pre-schoolers with developmental or behaviour problems. More research with improved measurements of treatment and outcomes is needed to solidify the findings and identify success factors for the implementation of special educational assistance in ECEC.

Research paper thumbnail of Incidence rates of treated mental disorders before and during the COVID-19 pandemic - a nationwide study comparing trends in the period 2015 to 2021

Background: There is a concern that exposure to psychosocial stressors during the COVID-19 pandem... more Background: There is a concern that exposure to psychosocial stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to a higher incidence of mental disorders. Thus, this study aimed to compare trends in incidence rates of depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders in primary- and specialist health care before (2015-2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). Methods: We used aggregated population registry data to calculate incidence rates of mental disorders from primary (The Norwegian Control and Payment of Health Reimbursement Registry (KUHR)) and specialist (The Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR)) health care. The analyses included all Norwegian residents aged 18-65 during the study period. Incident cases were defined as having no previous registration with the same mental disorder in KUHR (from 2006) or NPR (from 2008). We used linear prediction models and mean models to compare inci...

Research paper thumbnail of Intergenerational effects of parental educational attainment on parenting and childhood educational outcomes: Evidence from MoBa using within-family Mendelian randomization

The intergenerational transmission of educational attainment from parents to their children is on... more The intergenerational transmission of educational attainment from parents to their children is one of the most important and studied relationships in social science. Longitudinal studies have found strong associations between parents’ and their children’s educational outcomes, which could be due to the effects of parents. Here we provide new evidence about whether parents’ educational attainment affects their parenting behaviours and children’s early educational outcomes using within-family Mendelian randomization and data from 40,907 genotyped parent-child trios from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort (MoBa) study. We found evidence suggesting that parents’ educational attainment affects their children’s educational outcomes from age 5 to 14. More studies are needed to provide more samples of parent-child trios and assess the potential consequences of selection bias and grandparental effects.

Research paper thumbnail of Mental distress among Norwegian adults during the Covid-19 pandemic: predictors of initial response and subsequent trajectories

Background: Understanding factors associated with mental distress during a pandemic is imperative... more Background: Understanding factors associated with mental distress during a pandemic is imperative for planning interventions to reduce the negative mental health impact of future crises. Our aim was to identify factors associated with change in levels of mental distress in the Norwegian adult population at the onset of the Covid–19 pandemic, relative to pre-pandemic levels, and with longitudinal changes in mental distress until vaccination against Covid–19 became widespread in Norway (the first 1.5 years of the pandemic). Methods: The Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) is a prospective longitudinal study with baseline recruitment from 1999-2009. Baseline characteristics and eight waves of data collection during the pandemic (between March 2020 and September 2021) were used for this analysis. Mental distress was measured with the 5–item version of Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL–5). A piecewise latent growth model was fitted to identify initial change in mental d...

Research paper thumbnail of Contact with primary care physicians among adults with pre-existing common mental health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic: a registry-based study from Norway

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with pre-existing mental health problems ma... more Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals with pre-existing mental health problems may have experienced additional stress, which could worsen symptoms or trigger relapse. Objective: To investigate if the number of consultations with general practitioners (GPs) among individuals with a pre-existing common mental health problem during the pandemic differed from pre-pandemic years. Methods: Data on consultations with GPs among 18-65-year-olds registered with common mental health problems in 2017-2021 were retrieved from the Norwegian Control and Payment of Health Reimbursement register. Based on data from the pre-pandemic years (2017-2019), we predicted the number of consultations per week for depression, anxiety disorder, phobia/obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders during the pandemic (March 2020-December 2021) among individuals with pre-existing mental health problems. The forecasted and observed trends in GP con...

Research paper thumbnail of Number of pregnant women reporting use of BZDs or z-hypnotics<sup>a</sup>

Research paper thumbnail of SJP944740_Supplemental_Tables – Supplemental material for Gender gaps in preschool age: A study of behavior, neurodevelopment and pre-academic skills

Supplemental material, SJP944740_Supplemental_Tables for Gender gaps in preschool age: A study of... more Supplemental material, SJP944740_Supplemental_Tables for Gender gaps in preschool age: A study of behavior, neurodevelopment and pre-academic skills by Ragnhild E. Brandlistuen, Martin Flatø, Camilla Stoltenberg, Siri S. Helland and Mari V. Wang in Scandinavian Journal of Public Health