Intergenerational transmission of risk for emotion dysregulation

• In Event: Early signals of risk for psychopathology: Developmental approaches informed by the Research Domain Criteria

Abstract

Introduction: Indicators of risk for psychopathology likely emerge early in life, and may be measured before the child is even born. Built on the premise that we can identify prenatal markers of risk, we will discuss here our research program on the intergenerational transmission of risk for emotion dysregulation. Emotion dysregulation is an RDoC-informed construct that encompasses problems with early identification and management of emotions. The goal of this talk is to highlight our approach to using RDoC principles to identify markers of risk for emotion dysregulation prenatally, at birth, 7 and 18 months at multiple biobehavioral levels of analysis. Our overarching hypothesis is that mothers with high levels of emotion dysregulation will show challenges with parasympathetic nervous system and behavioral regulation which is also observed in their newborns and infants.

Study population: Our data come from 162 birthing parents who all identified as women. They were recruited from OB/GYN clinics in the third trimester of pregnancy in the mountain west and included mostly white (54%) and Hispanic (27%) women, median income was $50,000-79,999.

Methods: Our longitudinal study includes maternal parasympathetic nervous system baseline data and responses to an infant cry, evaluated by calculating respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). At birth we assess for newborn neurobehavior using the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale, which is a standardized exam evaluating newborn reflexes, attention, and self-regulation. At 7 months parasympathetic nervous system activity (RSA) is collected from mothers and infants at rest and in response to the still-face paradigm.

Results: In our first set of published studies we discovered that risk for emotion dysregulation transmission begins in pregnancy and can be measured at multiple levels of analysis. Multilevel models revealed that mothers with high levels of emotion dysregulation had blunted parasympathetic nervous system responses to hearing an infant cry, b = -.51, p <.001. These blunted responses to stress were found in their newborns. Linear regression showed that newborns of women with high emotion dysregulation had lower attention (b = -.16, p = .04) and arousal (b = - .17, p = .04). Multilevel models revealed that infants of mothers with high emotion dysregulation had blunted RSA responses to the still-face paradigm, b = .007, SE = .003, p = .032. These initial findings are significant because they suggest that we can characterize emotion dysregulation in pregnant women and that this dysregulation predicts newborn neurobehavioral and infant indicators of risk.

Authors

• Liz Conradt, Duke University
  Presenting Author

• Mengyu (Miranda) Gao, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, China

• Brendan Dale Ostlund, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Mindy A. Brown, Brigham Young University

• Parisa R. Kaliush, University of Utah

• Sarah Terrell, University of Utah

• Lee Raby, University of Utah

• Sheila E Crowell, University of Utah