TY - JOUR

T1 - An association of adult personality with prenatal and early postnatal growth

T2 - the EPQ lie-scale

AU - Flensborg-Madsen, Trine

AU - Revsbech, Rasmus

AU - Sørensen, Holger Jelling

AU - Mortensen, Erik Lykke

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - AbstractBackground: Recent studies have noted differences in social acquiescence and interpersonal relations amongadults born preterm or with very low birth weight compared to full term adults. In addition, birth weight has beenobserved to be negatively correlated with lie-scale scores in two studies. We attempted to replicate and extendthese studies by examining young adult lie-scale scores in a Danish birth cohort.Method: Weight, length and head circumference of 9125 children from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort weremeasured at birth and at 1, 3 and 6 years. A subsample comprising 1182 individuals participated in a follow-up at20–34 years and was administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) which includes a lie-scale (indicatingsocial acquiescence or self-insight). Associations between lie-scale scores and weight, length and head circumferencerespectively were analysed by multiple linear regression adjusting for single-mother status, parity, mother’sage, father’s age, parental social status, age at EPQ measurement, intelligence, and adult size.Results: Male infants with lower weight, length, and head-circumference at birth and the following three yearsgrew up to have higher scores on the lie-scale as young adults. Most of these associations remained significant afteradjustment for the included covariates. No associations were found for females. Analyses were also conducted withneuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism as outcome variables, but no significant associations were found forthese traits after adjustment.Conclusions: The findings replicate and extend findings from previous studies suggesting that size at birth andduring the first three years of life is significantly associated with social acquiescence in adult men. They highlightthe potential influence of prenatal and early postnatal development on personality growth and development.Keywords: Eysenck personality questionnaire, Lie-scale, Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism, Birth weight, Birthlength, Birth head-circumference

AB - AbstractBackground: Recent studies have noted differences in social acquiescence and interpersonal relations amongadults born preterm or with very low birth weight compared to full term adults. In addition, birth weight has beenobserved to be negatively correlated with lie-scale scores in two studies. We attempted to replicate and extendthese studies by examining young adult lie-scale scores in a Danish birth cohort.Method: Weight, length and head circumference of 9125 children from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort weremeasured at birth and at 1, 3 and 6 years. A subsample comprising 1182 individuals participated in a follow-up at20–34 years and was administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) which includes a lie-scale (indicatingsocial acquiescence or self-insight). Associations between lie-scale scores and weight, length and head circumferencerespectively were analysed by multiple linear regression adjusting for single-mother status, parity, mother’sage, father’s age, parental social status, age at EPQ measurement, intelligence, and adult size.Results: Male infants with lower weight, length, and head-circumference at birth and the following three yearsgrew up to have higher scores on the lie-scale as young adults. Most of these associations remained significant afteradjustment for the included covariates. No associations were found for females. Analyses were also conducted withneuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism as outcome variables, but no significant associations were found forthese traits after adjustment.Conclusions: The findings replicate and extend findings from previous studies suggesting that size at birth andduring the first three years of life is significantly associated with social acquiescence in adult men. They highlightthe potential influence of prenatal and early postnatal development on personality growth and development.Keywords: Eysenck personality questionnaire, Lie-scale, Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism, Birth weight, Birthlength, Birth head-circumference

U2 - 10.1186/2050-7283-2-8

DO - 10.1186/2050-7283-2-8

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25566381

VL - 2

SP - 1

EP - 6

JO - B M C Psychiatry

JF - B M C Psychiatry

SN - 1471-244X

M1 - 2050-7283/2/8

ER -