The impact of parental psychopathology and sociodemographic factors in selective mutism : a nationwide population-based study

Abstract

Selective mutism (SM) is a rare anxiety disorder, that usually onsets during childhood. Research on SM is lacking, and further knowledge on etiology is needed. Aim of this study was to investigate associations between parental psychopathology, parental age, maternal socioeconomic status, maternal marital status, immigration and urbanicity to offspring SM.

The study used nationwide register-based sample, that collected information from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register, the Finnish Central Population Register and the Finnish Medical Birth Register. The study included 860 cases along with sex and age matched controls (N=3250). Associations between SM and risk factors were examined by using conditional regression analyses.

Main findings in this study were that parental psychopathology was associated with offspring SM, and that old paternal age was a risk factor for SM. Range of diagnoses that were associated with offspring SM was wider for mothers than for fathers. The highest odds for offspring SM were when both parents had psychiatric disorders. Fathers over 35 years were in a risk to have a child with SM. Single mothers had increased odds for having a child with SM when compared to mothers, that were married or in a relationship.

Several different psychiatric disorders among parents were associated with offspring SM. Clustering of psychiatric disorders points towards shared etiology of psychiatric disorders. Relatively stronger association with maternal psychopathology implies toward additional environmental risk factors. Findings on paternal age and single motherhood help to improve our understanding of risk factors for SM.