Prenatal Cannabis and Tobacco Co-Exposure and Its Association with Behavioural Outcomes in Middle Childhood: Co-exposition prénatale au cannabis et au tabac et son association avec les résultats comportementaux au cours de l'enfance intermédiaire

Abstract

Objectives Cannabis legalization has triggered an increase in prenatal cannabis use. Given that tobacco is commonly co-used with cannabis, determining outcomes associated with prenatal cannabis and tobacco co-exposure is crucial. While literature exists regarding the individual effects of prenatal cannabis and tobacco exposure on childhood behaviour, there is a gap regarding their combined use, which may have interactive effects. Therefore, we investigated whether prenatal cannabis and tobacco co-exposure was associated with greater externalizing and internalizing problems in middle childhood compared to prenatal exposure to either substance alone or no exposure. Methods Baseline data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (collected in children ages 9–11) were used to explore differences in externalizing and internalizing scores derived from the Childhood Behavior Checklist across four groups: children with prenatal cannabis and tobacco co-exposure (CT, n = 290), children with prenatal cannabis-only exposure (CAN, n = 225), children with prenatal tobacco-only exposure (TOB, n = 966), and unexposed children (CTL, n = 8,311). We also examined if the daily quantity of tobacco exposure modulated the effect of cannabis exposure on outcomes. Results Adjusting for covariates, a 2 × 2 ANCOVA revealed significant main effects for prenatal cannabis ( p = 0.03) and tobacco exposure ( p < 0.001), and a significant interaction effect on externalizing scores ( p = 0.032); no significant main effects or interactions were found for internalizing scores. However, interactions between daily quantity of cannabis and tobacco exposure significantly predicted both externalizing and internalizing scores ( p < 0.01). Conclusions These findings indicate that co-exposure is associated with greater externalizing problems than exposure to either substance alone, which did not differ from each other. Further, greater tobacco exposure may amplify the negative effect of cannabis exposure on both externalizing and internalizing behaviours in children. These findings underscore the need for interventions that target cannabis and tobacco co-use in pregnant women to circumvent their adverse impact on middle childhood behaviour.