Risk and Protective Factors in the Regulation of Maternal and Infant Cortisol

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Based on both human and rodent studies (Feldman, 2011; Francis et al., 1999), the most important regulators for infant neuroendocrine arousal are the infant’s primary caregivers. In the physiological literature, the construct of ‘attunement’ has emerged as a central process through which mother and infant increasingly mirror or match one another in physiological state over time (e.g., Atkinson et al., 2016; Feldman, 2012). This process of physiological attunement is thought to lay the foundation for the functioning of the child’s stress response system. However, both the conceptualization and operationalization of attunement has become more complex as recent advances in the field have examined multilevel trajectories and cross-lagged processes of influence between partners in the dyad, as well as how such influences may be moderated by contextual factors (e.g. Bernard et al., 2017; Nofech-Mozes et al., 2019). In the current symposium, contributions examine both diurnal and stress-reactive cortisol regulation of mothers and infants using multi-level and cross-lagged modelling and examine how risk factors (maternal childhood maltreatment; maternal PTSD) and protective factors (maternal positivity) affect maternal and infant neuroendocrine regulation. Results suggest that risk tends to blunt maternal cortisol reactivity, lead to greater differences between mother and infant cortisol levels, and moderate patterns of infant-to-mother influence, while maternal positivity increases bidirectional influence between mother and infant. Discussion will consider the evidence for ‘maternal buffering’ in relation to infant cortisol regulation and explore the mechanisms that might underly the negative effects of maternal trauma and maltreatment on maternal attunement and dyadic influence.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Chair

• Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Harvard Medical School

Discussant

• Megan R. Gunnar, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Individual Presentations

• Coregulation of Diurnal Cortisol in Mexican Origin Mother-Infant Dyads - Presenting Author: Evelyn Mercado, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Non-Presenting Author: Elisa Ugarte, University of California - Davis; Non-Presenting Author: Leah Corinne Hibel, University of California - Davis

• Impact of Maternal Trauma-Related Psychopathology and Life Stress on HPA Axis Stress Response - Presenting Author: Dawn L. Ramdas-Neal, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Non-Presenting Author: Marissa D. Sbrilli, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Non-Presenting Author: Heidemarie Laurent, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Maternal Experiences of Childhood Maltreatment Moderate Patterns of Mother-Infant Cortisol Regulation Under Stress - Presenting Author: Jennifer E. Khoury, McMaster University; Non-Presenting Author: Joseph Beeney, University of Pittsburgh; Non-Presenting Author: Ilana Shiff, York University; Non-Presenting Author: Michelle Bosquet Enlow, Harvard Medical School; Non-Presenting Author: Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Harvard Medical School