Environment-Wide Association Study (En WAS) of Prenatal and Perinatal Factors Associated With Autistic Traits: A Population-Based Study.
Parental mental-health problems and stressors measured during pregnancy forecast higher childhood autistic-trait scores.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Amiri et al. (2020) scanned 111 prenatal and birth factors in a large birth cohort. They asked: which ones predict higher autistic-trait scores in childhood?
The team used an Environment-Wide Association Study. That means they tested every factor at once, then kept only the signals that stayed strong after ruling out parents’ own mental-health history.
What they found
Dozens of factors linked to higher trait scores. Parental mental-health problems and family stressors survived the final cut.
In plain words: babies whose parents already carried high stress or psychiatric diagnoses were more likely to show autistic-type behaviors years later.
How this fits with other research
van der Lubbe et al. (2025) extends this picture. They measured hair cortisol in parents and kids with ASD and found the stress levels move together. Masoud shows the risk starts before birth; Anna shows the biological echo continues afterward.
Goodwin et al. (2012) set the stage. Their longitudinal work showed parenting stress and child behavior feed each other over time. Masoud’s EWAS now adds ‘parental psychopathology’ as an early risk flag, giving practitioners a place to intervene sooner.
Samadi et al. (2012) widen the lens. Their review found stigma hurts both the child and the caregiver’s mental health. Masoud’s data fit right in: when parents already struggle, the child’s trait scores rise, possibly starting a stress loop the review describes.
Why it matters
You can’t change genes, but you can screen for parental stress and psychiatric history today. Add brief parent-wellbeing questions to your intake forms. When red flags pop up, link families to mental-health support before behavior problems grow. Early stress reduction may soften later autistic traits and lighten your treatment load.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A combination of genetic and environmental factors contributes to the origins of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While a number of studies have described specific environmental factors associating with emerging ASD, studies that compare and contrast multiple environmental factors in the same study are lacking. Thus, the goal of this study was to perform a prospective, data-driven environmental-wide association study of pre- and perinatal factors associated with the later development of autistic symptoms in childhood. The participants included 3891 6-year-old children from a birth cohort with pre- and perinatal data. Autistic symptoms were measured using the Social Responsiveness Scale in all children. Prior to any analyses, the sample was randomly split into a discovery set (2920) and a test set (921). Multiple linear regression analyses were performed for each of 920 variables, correcting for six of the most common covariates in epidemiological studies. We found 111 different pre- and perinatal factors associated with autistic traits during childhood. In secondary analyses where we controlled for parental psychopathology, 23 variables in the domains of family and interpersonal relationships were associated with the development of autistic symptoms during childhood. In conclusion, a data-driven approach was used to identify a number of pre- and perinatal risk factors associating with higher childhood autistic symptoms. These factors include measures of parental psychopathology and family and interpersonal relationships. These measures could potentially be used for the early identification of those at increased risk to develop ASD. LAY SUMMARY: A combination of genetic and environmental factors contributes to the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Each environmental factor may affect the risk of ASD. In a study on 6-year-old children, a number of pre- and perinatal risk factors were identified that are associated with autistic symptoms in childhood. These factors include measures of parental psychopathology and family and interpersonal relationships. These variables could potentially serve as markers to identify those at increased risk to develop ASD or autistic symptoms. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1582-1600. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2020 · doi:10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2018.01.006