Maternal experiences of childhood maltreatment moderate patterns of mother–infant cortisol regulation under stress

Abstract

The relation between maternal and infant cortisol responses has been a subject of intense research over the past decade. Relatedly, it has been hypothesized that maternal history of childhood maltreatment (MCM) impacts stress regulation across generations. The current study employed four statistical approaches to determine how MCM influences the cortisol responses of 150 mothers and their 4‐month‐old infants during the Still‐Face Paradigm. Results indicated that MCM moderated cortisol patterns in several ways. First, lower MCM mothers and infants had strong positive associations between cortisol levels measured at the same time point, whereas higher MCM mothers and infants did not show an association. Second, infants of higher MCM mothers had cortisol levels that were moderately high and remained elevated over the procedure, whereas infants of lower MCM mothers had decreasing cortisol levels over time. Third, higher MCM mothers and infants showed increasingly divergent cortisol levels over time, compared to lower MCM dyads. Finally, patterns of cross‐lagged influence of infant cortisol on subsequent maternal cortisol were moderated by MCM, such that lower MCM mothers were influenced by their infants' cortisol levels at earlier time points than higher MCM mothers. These findings highlight MCM as one contributor to processes of stress regulation in the mother–infant dyad.

Maternal Childhood Maltreatment Is Associated With Lower Infant Gray Matter Volume and Amygdala Volume During the First Two Years of Life

“…In addition, given that GMV undergoes substantial growth in the first postnatal year, postnatal influences associated with MCM are also likely ( 41 ). MCM has been associated with increased maternal depression ( 48 ), suboptimal parenting ( 49 , 50 ), atypical maternal and infant stress responses ( 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ), and disruptions in early mother-infant interaction ( 55 ). Finally, other work has linked reduced GMV in infancy and childhood to lower SES ( 9 , 10 ) and lower maternal sensitivity ( 11 , 12 ).…”

The Neurobiology of Infant Attachment-Trauma and Disruption of Parent–Infant Interactions

“…The most notable impacts of this adversity are within a social context where children display heightened separation anxiety, decreased ability to soothe, and altered fear, all of which are associated with acute increase in stress hormones. Indeed, increased levels of stress hormones have consistently been shown to negatively impact neurobehavioral development (Cicchetti and Toth, 1995;Teicher et al, 2002;de Kloet et al, 2005;Bosquet Enlow et al, 2014;Rahman et al, 2016;Bonacquisti et al, 2020;Khoury et al, 2021). However, more recent literature has highlighted the importance of the parent (or other important caregiver) in blunting the infant's stress hormone increase (i.e., social buffering).…”