Mother–infant cortisol attunement: Associations with mother–infant attachment disorganization

Abstract

This study explores the conceptualization of mother–infant cortisol attunement both theoretically and empirically, and its association with mother–infant attachment disorganization. In a community sample (N = 256), disorganization and cortisol were assessed during the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) at infant age 17 months. Salivary cortisol was collected at baseline, and 20 and 40 min after the SSP. We utilized three statistical approaches: correlated growth modeling (probing a simultaneous conceptualization of attunement), cross-lagged modeling (probing a lagged, reciprocal conceptualization of attunement), and a multilevel model difference score analysis (to examine the pattern of discrepancies in mother–infant cortisol values). Correlated growth modeling revealed that disorganized, relative to organized, dyads had significant magnitude of change over time, such that, among disorganized dyads, as mothers had greater declines in cortisol, infants had greater increases. The difference score analysis revealed that disorganized, relative to organized, dyads had a greater divergence between maternal and infant cortisol values, such that maternal values were lower than infant values. Disorganized attachment status was not significantly associated with attunement when conceptualized as reciprocal and lagged in the cross-lagged model. Findings suggest that mother–infant dyads in disorganized attachment relationships, who are by definition behaviorally misattuned, are also misattuned in their adrenocortical responses.

Disentangling levels of mother–infant neuroendocrine attunement and longitudinal relations with maternal risk and protective factors

“…At the same time, there is evidence that dissimilarity in mother and infant cortisol production can be problematic, at least against a backdrop of relatively low demographic risk (i.e., higher socioeconomic status, no history of psychiatric diagnoses). The opposite of attunement-i.e., opposing cortisol difference scores/slopes across a stressor-has been observed in dyads with disorganized attachment (Nofech-Mozes, Jamieson, Gonzalez, & Atkinson, 2020).…”

A systematic review of caregiver–child physiological synchrony across systems: Associations with behavior and child functioning

“…The working definition of synchrony provided above requires that synchrony be directly tied to an interpersonal process – the timescale of which is not yet determined. Some have attempted to investigate this issue by examining multiple different lag times in the same study (e.g., Lunkenheimer et al, 2018a; Nofech-Mozes et al, 2019). Researchers should statistically compare multiple epoch lengths and lag times that make sense for the system being measured (e.g., autonomic activity on the order of seconds, HPA on the order of minutes) and choose the form that best fits the data.…”

“…Several primarily large sample studies ( N s = 233–1,141) and two smaller sample studies ( N = 47 and 83) have shown a stronger (or less negative) association between caregiver and infant cortisol reactivity when the caregiver is more positive and responsive and report greater marital satisfaction (Atkinson et al, 2013; Clauss et al, 2018; Hendrix et al, 2018; Hibel et al, 2015; Nofech-Mozes et al, 2019; van Bakel & Riksen-Walraven, 2008). Other studies (with similarly large samples) have found stronger adrenocortical synchrony in dyads from households with higher rates of violence or punitive/intrusive parenting behaviors (Hibel & Mercado, 2019; Hibel et al, 2009).…”

“…As mentioned above, different stressors can be differentially effective in activating the HPA axis (Dickerson & Kemeny, 2004; Gunnar et al, 2009). When only considering studies using well-validated stressors known to elicit a stress response in infants (Strange Situation and Still-Face) and strong multilevel modeling techniques, correlates of adrenocortical synchrony are generally positive (Atkinson et al, 2013; Nofech-Mozes et al, 2019; but see also Laurent et al, 2011). Multilevel modeling techniques tend to be more conservative than correlational techniques in analyzing associations between synchrony and other variables (Bernard et al, 2017).…”

“…Studies with the strongest methodological and statistical approaches tended to show positive associations between adrenocortical synchrony and parenting behaviors. These discrepancies should not be ignored, however, especially because positive findings in infancy and adolescence are based on normative risk populations (Atkinson et al, 2013; Borelli et al, 2019; Nofech-Mozes et al, 2019). Findings could vastly differ for higher-risk populations, as seen with parasympathetic synchrony, though this remains to be examined in future studies.…”