Poster #38 - Associations Between Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), Prenatal Anxiety, and Infant Temperament

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

Background. It is estimated that more than 50% of women have experienced an instance of early-life adversity (Flanagan et al., 2018) and recent research suggests that consequences of maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can be transmitted between generations to their offspring (Letourneau et al., 2019). Maternal ACEs are associated with difficult temperament and poorer regulatory abilities in infancy, as well as greater risk of poor health and developmental outcomes in childhood (Racine et al., 2018). Maternal psychopathology, including postpartum anxiety, is similarly linked with infant developmental difficulties and difficult temperament (Britton, 2011), and there is evidence that maladaptive infant socioemotional symptoms may be exacerbated when mothers have both high ACEs and high perinatal depressive symptoms (McDonnell & Valentino, 2016). However, the role of prenatal anxiety in infant socioemotional outcomes has not been examined as extensively as depression (Mattera et al., 2022). The current study addresses this gap by examining the associations between maternal ACEs, prenatal anxiety, and infant temperament.

Methods. Participants include 30 pregnant individuals (44.4% White) recruited during pregnancy at 30 weeks gestation. Mothers (as all participants identified as women) completed surveys during pregnancy that assessed Adverse Childhood Experiences (Adverse Childhood Experiences-Short Form; Felitti et al., 1998) and anxiety symptoms (Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale; Somerville et al., 2014). At 16 weeks postpartum, mothers completed a survey assessing their infant’s temperament (Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised; Rothbart & Gartstein, 2003).

Results. Linear regression results revealed that maternal prenatal anxiety moderated the association between maternal ACEs and infant temperament with mother education and infant sex as covariates in the model. More specifically, the interaction term between maternal ACEs and anxiety symptoms was negatively associated with infant negative reactivity (B=-.012 SE=.004, p=.005; see Table 1). Follow-up simple slopes analysis showed that mothers with high ACEs and high prenatal anxiety symptoms reported high infant negative reactivity. Mothers only reported lower levels of infant negative reactivity when they reported both low ACEs and low prenatal anxiety (B=.074, SE=.021, t=3.513, p = .002; see Figure 1).

Discussion. Findings suggest that both maternal ACEs and prenatal anxiety are important risk factors for infant negative reactivity, and may reflect a genetic or epigenetic association between maternal ACEs, prenatal anxiety, and infant negativity reactivity (Foss et al., 2022). Findings have implications for prenatal interventions for mothers with high levels of childhood adversity and/or high prenatal anxiety symptoms that may also support infant socioemotional development.

Authors

• Ashley N Quigley, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater
  Presenting Author

• Gina Erato, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater

• Kristin Fields, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater

• Elizabeth Hinckley, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater

• Samantha Addante, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater

• Karina M. Shreffler, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

• Lucia Ciciolla, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater