Poster #139 - Interactive Effects of Mother-Child Relationship Quality in Infancy and Middle Childhood on Children’s Brain Volumes

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Brain development is driven by both genetic and environmental factors (Greenough et al., 1987). Data from studies in previously institutionalized children underscore the importance of developmental timing of experiences in this regard (Tottenham & Sheridan, 2010) and suggest that positive experiences could buffer the effect of negative ones on brain development (Sheridan et al., 2012). Although there is increasing interest in the link between normative variation in the quality of caregiving relationships and child brain development, the literature is still limited. Luby et al. (2016) reported that parental behaviors at different ages showed different relations to child brain development; however, no study has yet investigated the interactive effects of the quality of mother-child relationships at different developmental periods in the prediction of brain volumes. Consequently, it remains unclear whether the effects of recent caregiving experiences could depend in part on earlier caregiving. Accordingly, this study aimed to examine whether the association between mother-child relationship quality in middle childhood (T2) and total grey matter volume (GMV) in late childhood (T3) is moderated by relationship quality in infancy (T1).

Participants (n = 33) were followed as part of a larger study that documents the prospective associations between caregiving environment and child development. Mother-child relationship quality was assessed when children were 15 months old (T1; M = 15.65) using the observer version of the Attachment Q-Sort (Waters & Deane, 1985) based on a 1-hour home visit. This yielded a global score of mother-child attachment security, used to index overall relational quality. At T2 (M = 7.18 years), a 10-minute mother-child interaction was videotaped and coded using the Emotional Ambiance subscale of the Mutually Responsive Orientation Scale (Kochanska et al., 2008). Children underwent structural MRI at 10 years of age (T3; M = 10.59) using a standard 3D T1-weighted whole-brain protocol on a Siemens 3T scanner. Neuroimaging data were preprocessed using CAT12 (SPM12) and total GMV was extracted for each child. Moderation analysis was then performed using PROCESS in SPSS (Hayes, 2013).

The analyses revealed that after controlling for total intracranial volume, maternal education, and child sex, mother-child relationship quality at T1 moderated the association between mother-child relationship quality at T2 and total GMV, p = .001. Post-hoc analyses revealed that mother-child relationship quality at T2 was significantly and positively linked to total GMV at T3; however only among children evolving in a low (β = .56, p = .002) or average quality (β = .21, p = .015) relationship at T1.

This study is the first to illustrate that mother-child relationships in infancy and middle childhood interact in the prediction of brain volumes in late childhood. Albeit preliminary, this study suggests that the effects of low relationship quality on brain development could be mitigated by subsequent caregiving experiences of higher quality. Given meta-analytic data suggesting that the quality of parent-child relationships can be bolstered with evidence-based intervention (Bakermans-Kranenburg et al., 2003), the findings raise the possibility that one could intervene to counteract initial negative effects of early caregiving relationships on children’s neural development.

Authors

• Élizabel Leblanc, University of Montreal
  Presenting Author

• Fanny Degeilh, Sainte-Justine Research Center, Univertisy of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Veronique Daneault, Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine, Montreal Sacré-Cœur Hospital, Quebec, Canada
  Non-Presenting Author

• Miriam H. Beauchamp, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Annie Bernier, University of Montreal
  Non-Presenting Author