A study funded by Dr. Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, revealed that mothers-to-be who smoke are far more likely to have children who develop behavior problems as toddlers than pregnant women who do not smoke during pregnancy.   In fact, on the average, those who smoked were four times more likely to have toddlers with negative behaviors.

 

Research by Judith Brook of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, indicates that problem behavior linked to maternal smoking is likely to continue into adolescence.

 

Danish cohort study of 4169 male and 3943 female babies born between 1959 and 1961 to mothers who had smoked cigarettes during the third trimester of pregnancy showed a correlation between fetal nicotine exposure and later adult criminal and psychiatric hospitalization for substance abuse outcomes. The degree to which these outcomes occurred were dose-response related (the amount of maternal smoking during pregnancy correlated to the rate of criminal arrest and psychiatric hospitalization for substance abuse in male and female offspring).

— Am J Psychiatry 2002 Jan 1;159(1):48–54