Behavior troubles in nursery school children and their possible relationship to pregnancy or delivery difficulties.

Thirty four children, 3-5 year old, of 3 nursery schools, with emotional inhibition or temper tantrums detected by the nursery staff, were investigated on difficulties in pregnancy or delivery, by specifically asking their mothers. Compared to a matched control group, the mothers of probands reported more anxious pregnancies (.025), more somatic disturbed pregnancies (.005), experienced more foetal hypermotivity (.05), and their deliveries were more anomalous (.005). The vital conditions of their new-borns were affected by more distress (.025). Since there is an increasing amount of literature stressing on one hand on relationships between pregnancy and delivery difficulties and future biopsychological and social maladjustment, and on the other hand on childhood antecedents of adult mental diseases, an early detection and a correct causality are the first steps to right therapeutic interventions.