Maternal immune and affiliative biomarkers and sensitive parenting mediate the effects of chronic early trauma on child anxiety

Abstract

Our findings, the first to measure immune and affiliation biomarkers in mothers and children, detail their unique and joint effects on children's anxiety in response to stress; highlight the relations between chronic stress, immune activation, and anxiety in children; and describe how processes of biobehavioral synchrony shape children's long-term adaptation.

Maternal depression impacts child psychopathology across the first decade of life: Oxytocin and synchrony as markers of resilience

“…Human studies similarly showed that OT underpins the expression of synchronous parenting and described correlations between parent and child's salivary OT as assessed by baseline levels, OT reactivity patterns, or total OT production measured across several samples. Such parent–child OT fit has been demonstrated in infancy (Feldman, Gordon, & Zagoory, ; Weisman, Zagoory‐Sharon, & Feldman, ), preschool (Feldman, Gordon, Influs, Gutbir, & Ebstein, ; Feldman et al., ), and middle childhood (Ulmer‐Yaniv et al., ), mediated by the degree of parent–child synchrony.…”

“…Our special focus was the neuroendocrine and behavioral arms of the neurobiology of affiliation; oxytocin (OT) and synchrony (Feldman, ), as correlates of resilience. Child salivary OT was measured at 6 and 10 years in light of research showing associations between OT and better adjustment in children of that age in various high‐risk populations (Apter‐Levy et al., ; Feldman, Golan, Hirschler‐Guttenberg, Ostfeld‐Etzion, & Zagoory‐Sharon, ; Lebowitz et al., ; Ulmer‐Yaniv et al., ). Mother–child synchrony was defined, consistent with several conceptual models (Feldman, ; Harrist & Waugh, ; Tronick, ), as the mutual adaptation of mother and child to each other's social signals in ways that enhance positive affect, sharing, and trust.…”

“…Furthermore, OT has been associated with resilience in high‐risk contexts at this age. Attenuated salivary OT was found in 7–15‐year‐old children with separation anxiety that increased following sensitive mother–child interaction (Lebowitz et al., ); 9–11‐year‐old children exposed to chronic trauma exhibited lower OT only when their mothers sensitive parenting was low (Ulmer‐Yaniv et al., ); lower serum OT levels were found in children with ADHD and higher OT correlated with lower impulsivity and aggression and more empathy in these children (Demirci, Ozmen, Kilic, & Oztop, ; Demirci, Özmen, & Öztop, ); and children's plasma and cerebrospinal fluid OT concentrations predicted lower anxiety (Carson et al., ).…”

Exercise Reverses Behavioral and Synaptic Abnormalities after Maternal Inflammation

“…Consistent with previous reports, we found that MIA offspring at postnatal day (P) 60 exhibited deficits in social interaction using the three-chamber assay ( Figure 1A) and repetitive behaviors by analyzing self-grooming time (Figure 1B). Because MIA is likely associated with anxiety in offspring (Ulmer-Yaniv et al, 2018), we also performed the novelty-suppressed feeding test and found that the MIA offspring displayed enhanced anxiety ( Figure 1C). Next, we examined whether the MIA-associated behaviors could be reversed by adult voluntary exercise.…”

Urgent engagement in 9/11 pregnant widows and their infants: Transmission of trauma

“…A growing literature documents adverse effects of maternal trauma on mothers and children (Appleyard & Osofsky, 2003;van Ee et al, 2012;Fenerci & DePrince, 2018;Hoven et al, 2009;La Greca, Silverman, Vernberg, & Roberts, 2002;Osofsky, Osofsky, & Harris, 2007;Robinson et al, 2019;Sagi-Schwarz, Seginer, & Abdeen, 2008;Ulmer-Yaniv et al, 2018). Some studies show that children of trauma-exposed parents are at risk for psychopathology, independent of the child's own exposure to the trauma (Hoven et al, 2004(Hoven et al, , 2005(Hoven et al, , 2009; Shachar-Dadon, Gueron-Sela, Weintraub, Maayan-Metzger, & Leshem, 2017).…”