The association between low birth weight and attention problems in childhood has been replicated many times (e.g. Momany, Kamradt, & Nikolas, 2018). However birth weight is unlikely the aetiological start-point of this association, as birth weight is itself the product of many prenatal factors e.g. gestational complications, maternal toxin exposure during pregnancy and basic demographics.

We explore (1) which prenatal factors best predict attention problems in two independant population-based cohorts of children (2) which associations, if any, are moderated by sex and (3) we report accuracy statistics of our prenatal prediction algorithm for attention problems.

Participants were children aged 9 from ABCD study from the United States (N > 9,000) and the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) study from Ireland (N > 6,000). Selected variables included familial pscyhiatric history, maternal smoking during gestation, prescription and non-prescription drug-use during gestation and a variety of gestational complications. All interactions with sex were also included. We used 5-fold cross-validation and elastic net regression (glmnet) to identify the optimal predictors of attention problems (measured by CBCL and SDQ).

Strongest predictors of attention problems in the U.S. cohort included male sex, number of drugs used during pregnancy, number of family members with a history of mental illness, and number of gestational complications. Sex interacted with several of these risks. Protective factors included being a twin/triplet, being Asian, having higher household income and higher parental education level.

Several risk factors for childhood attention problems were identified across both cohorts, supporting their generalizabilty. Other findings were cohort-specific.

No significant relationships.