2-144 - Multilevel Perspectives on Harsh Parenting and Maltreatment

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The experience of harsh parenting and maltreatment by caregivers is widely viewed as one of the most stressful experiences for children, and a large body of research has documented the sequelae resulting from such treatment. Harsh experiences can range from shouting and hostile interactions to slapping, hitting, and indications of child maltreatment. This symposium takes a multilevel perspective – incorporating studies at the molecular, genetic, and neural levels – to examine the consequences of harsh parenting and maltreatment.

The first paper examines the ways in which children’s difficult temperament, harsh parenting in adolescence, and a variant of the oxytocin receptor gene are associated with later allostatic load, a cluster of cardiometabolic risk factors that predicts later disease. The second paper focuses on links between harsh parent-adolescent conflict and signaling molecules (mRNA) that regulate airway inflammation and obstruction in a sample of children with asthma. The third paper examines the role of exposure to child maltreatment as a predictor of aberrant amygdala activity and psychopathology in early adulthood. Our discussant, a leading expert on the study of harsh parenting and child maltreatment, will offer insight into how these findings can be integrated into a multilevel model of developmental psychopathology. The unique samples and study designs will highlight the myriad ways that harsh parenting and maltreatment influences children’s development.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Katherine Babcock Ehrlich, Northwestern University

Discussant

• Dante Cicchetti, University of Minnesota

Individual Presentations

• Difficult Temperament, Harsh Parenting, and Young Adult Allostatic Load: A Prospective Mediation Analysis with Genetic Moderation - Presenting Author: Tianyi Yu, University of Georgia; Gene H Brody, University of Georgia

• Harsh Parent-Adolescent Conflict, Gene Expression, and Symptom Severity in Adolescents with Asthma - Presenting Author: Katherine Babcock Ehrlich, Northwestern University; Gregory Miller, Northwestern University; Edith Chen, Northwestern University

• Long-Term Alterations in Amygdala Reactivity Partially Explain the Link Between Child Maltreatment and Adult Antisocial Behavior - Presenting Author: Dustin Albert, Duke University; Anne-Marie R. Iselin, University of North Carolina at Wilmington; Jamie L Hanson, Duke University; Ahmad Hariri, Duke University; Kenneth A Dodge, Duke University