Poster #140 - Disrupted maternal behavior is associated with infant negative affect and cortisol output at 4 months

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Maternal behavior during the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP; Tronick et al., 1978) is associated with infant behavior and affect regulation (Lowe et al., 2012; Mesman, Linting, Joosen, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & van IJzendoorn, 2013; Martinez-Torteya et al., 2015). However, prior research has focused primarily on positive parenting and maternal sensitivity as predictors of infant responses to the SFP. Thus, it remains unclear how more disrupted forms of maternal behavior are associated with signs of infant emotional and physiological distress. In the present study, we examined a range of atypical maternal behaviors in association with infant behavior and stress regulation.

Hypotheses: We hypothesized that more disrupted forms of maternal behavior, indexed by maternal affective communication errors, disorientation, negative intrusiveness, role confusion, and withdrawal, would be associated with less infant social engagement, more infant negative affect, and less infant soothability during the SFP. We also hypothesized that more disrupted maternal behavior would be associated with higher infant cortisol output in response to the SFP.

Methods: 59 mother-infant dyads participated in a study of the neurobiology of maternal and infant stress. At infant age 4 months, dyads engaged in the SFP, including a 3-minute play episode, 2-minute still-face episode, and 5-minute reunion episode. Infant and maternal behaviors were coded during the reunion episode. The MACY Infant-Parent Coding System (Earls, Musik, & Beeghly, 2009) was used to code infant affect, infant social engagement, and infant distress and soothability. Maternal disrupted communication was rated using the Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification (AMBIANCE) coding system, which yields five subscales: affective communication errors, disorientation, negative intrusiveness, role confusion, and withdrawal (Lyons-Ruth et al., 1999). Cortisol was collected from mothers and infants once before (baseline) and twice after (reactivity and recovery) the SFP. Area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCG) was used as an index of total cortisol output, and area under the curve with respect to increase (AUCI) was used as an index of cortisol reactivity.

Results: As shown in Table 1, infant negative affect was significantly associated with several aspects of maternal disrupted communication, including affective communication errors, negative/intrusive behavior, role confusion, and (marginally) disorientation. Infant positive affect was also significantly less frequent in the context of maternal affective communication errors. Infant soothability was also impaired in the context of more frequent affective communication errors, but enhanced in the context of maternal withdrawal. There were no differences in infant distress or in infant social engagement at 4 months based on maternal disrupted communication. As shown in Table 2, maternal affective communication errors and role confused interactions were also positively correlated with infant total cortisol output (AUCG).

Conclusions: Results add to the body of research indicating that maternal behavior is associated with infant behavior and physiology during the SFP. Maternal affective communication errors were particularly relevant to increased negative infant affect, muted positive affect, and elevated cortisol output. This suggests that nuanced assessments of maternal behavior will be useful in understanding how maternal behavior is linked to infant behavioral, affective, and physiological regulation.

Authors

• Molly Cunningham, Cambridge Hospital
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer Khoury, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Hospital
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michelle Bosquet Enlow, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author

• Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author