The social transmission of risk: Maternal stress physiology, synchronous parenting, and well-being mediate the effects of war exposure on child psychopathology.

Abstract

While chronic early stress increases child susceptibility to psychopathology, risk and resilience trajectories are shaped by maternal social influences whose role requires much further research in longitudinal studies. We examined the social transmission of risk by assessing paths leading from war-exposure to child symptoms as mediated by 3 sources of maternal social influence; stress physiology, synchronous parenting, and psychiatric disorder. Mothers and children living in a zone of continuous war were assessed in early childhood (1.5-5 years) and the current study revisited families in late (9-11years) childhood (N = 177; N = 101 war-exposed; N = 76 controls). At both time-points, maternal and child's salivary cortisol (SC), social behavior, and externalizing and internalizing symptoms were assessed. In late childhood, hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) were also measured and mother and child underwent psychiatric diagnosis. The social transmission model was tested against 2 alternative models; 1 proposing direct impact of war on children without maternal mediation, the other predicting late-childhood symptoms from early childhood variables, not change trajectories. Path analysis controlling for early childhood variables supported our conceptual model. Whereas maternal psychopathology was directly linked with child symptoms, defining direct mediation, the impact of maternal stress hormones was indirect and passed through stress contagion mechanisms involving coupling between maternal and child's HCC and SC. Similarly, maternal synchrony linked with child social engagement as the pathway to reduced symptomatology. Findings underscore the critical role of maternal stress physiology, attuned behavior, and well-being in shaping child psychopathology amid adversity and specify direct and indirect paths by which mothers stand between war and the child. (PsycINFO Database Record

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

“…Children's social engagement is an orientation maturing on the basis of biological dispositions integrated with sensitive parenting, shows individual stability over time, and predicts social competencies with peers (Feldman & Masalha, ). We found that among children growing in war‐zones, social engagement mediated the effects of trauma on child behavior problems at 10 years, similar to the current findings (Halevi et al., ). Possibly, by school‐age, children's social skills and engaged versus withdrawn style play an important role in resilience, enabling children to draw comfort from their peers and to create meaningful attachments.…”

What is resilience: an affiliative neuroscience approach

“…The infant's oxytocin system is shaped by caregiving. Animal studies indicate that maternal behavior programs oxytocin receptor availability in the brain 71 , and longitudinal human studies show that peripheral oxytocin is programmed by sensitive parenting repeatedly experienced throughout childhood 72‐74 . Oxytocin induces a physiological state of quiescence that affords participation in the world without fear and stimulates the desire for social contact through its links with dopamine in striatal neurons 75‐77 .…”

Socioeconomic risk moderates the association between caregiver cortisol levels and infant cortisol reactivity to emotion induction at 24 months

“…Although behaviors certainly play a role in coregulatory physiological processes, these may often be subtle or "hidden" behaviors, such as touch, gaze, smell, tone of voice, posture, gesture, or facial expression, which are not detectable using global observational or self-report measures, but may be more easily detected using physiological methods. Three recent studies provide support for this idea, having shown that the effects of stress exposure on a child's physiology were mediated by the mother's physiological stress (Halevi et al, 2017;Hibel & Mercado, 2017;Waters et al, 2014). Importantly, in all three studies, stress transmission was at least partially independent of observed measures of caregiving behavior, highlighting the significance of physiology as a more robust indicator of transmission.…”

“…Three recent studies provide support for this idea, having shown that the effects of stress exposure on a child's physiology were mediated by the mother's physiological stress (Halevi et al, 2017;Hibel & Mercado, 2017;Waters et al, 2014). Three recent studies provide support for this idea, having shown that the effects of stress exposure on a child's physiology were mediated by the mother's physiological stress (Halevi et al, 2017;Hibel & Mercado, 2017;Waters et al, 2014).…”