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Parenting Quality Predicts Immune Function in At-Risk Children: A Replication Study

Sat, March 23, 8:00 to 9:30am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 3, Room 319

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Research findings indicate that early stress exposure is associated with a wide variety of poor physical health outcomes, but little is known about the factors that may contribute to these adverse effects. Parenting quality is a natural target for this kind of research, as poor caregiving, a chronic stress experience, is also implicated in health outcomes. Previous research from our group and others suggests associations between caregiving quality and immune targets (e.g., antibody response to vaccination) or immune-related clinical outcomes (e.g., asthma and obesity). The present analyses examined the association between key dimensions of parenting (parental monitoring, conflict, and warmth) and immune system activation, measured via circulating levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), in two distinct samples of children.

Hypotheses:
• Increased parental monitoring will be associated with decreased IL-6 over time.
• Parental monitoring will have an association with IL-6 that is distinct from parental warmth and parental conflict.
• This effect will be replicated across a second sample of at-risk children.

Methods:
Study 1 (Family Life Project; FLP): Data are derived from the FLP, a prospective longitudinal study of children growing up poor in rural Pennsylvania and North Carolina (n=1,292). A random subsample of 476 children underwent intensive in-home assessment at approximately 11 years of age; of these, a blood sample was obtained from 81%.
Study 2 (Child Health Study; CHS): 188 children aged 9-10 years and their primary caregiver were recruited from ambulatory pediatrics clinics serving diverse populations of families in the northeastern US. The recruitment approach oversampled families at elevated psychosocial risk; 67% were minorities, mostly characterizing themselves as African-American. Data on caregiving and IL-6 were gathered on up to 5 occasions over a 3-year period.
Blood was drawn via venipuncture for IL-6 high sensitivity serum ELISA assays in both studies; recent illness was entered as a covariate. Data on BMI, medications, and general health and fitness were collected as part of a health interview with the caregiver and child; data on caregiving quality were based on well-validated questionnaires completed by both the primary caregiver and the child a well as observational and interview methods.

Results: CHS: Generalized Estimating Equations were used to examine the association of caregiving measures with IL-6 at 4 visits. Positive monitoring quality (awareness of the child's whereabouts) was significantly associated with IL-6 (log-transformed, p<.05) across the 3-year study period.
FLP: Regression analyses identified a significant association between lower IL-6 concentrations and higher degrees of parental monitoring (B = -.34; SE = .16, p < .05). The prediction in both studies held after accounting for BMI, sleep quality, and psychosocial covariates.

Conclusion: This study leverages data from two geographically and temporally distinct samples to examine the effects of parenting quality on a measure of immune activation in children. Findings from both studies show that parental monitoring – an engaged, attentive, and developmentally salient aspect of the parent-child relationship – is reliably associated with lower levels of a key inflammatory marker and suggests that caregiving quality may also influence physical health in children.

Authors