Mother-infant affective communication via autonomic physiology

• In Event: The influence of maternal communication on infants’ biobehavioral state

Abstract

Caregivers shape infants’ self-regulation through pathways like sensitive responsiveness to infant cues as well as less overt channels. Across multiple studies we have revealed that mothers can communicate their affective states to their infants through their autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses and that this process may be influenced by maternal factors. The ANS is useful for assessing affect transmission because it is sensitive to contextual factors relevant to affect, linked to different affective states, and because it can be measured continuously and non-invasively during real-time interactions even among infants. We used a linear growth curve framework to conduct time series analyses throughout the studies described.
1. Sixty-nine mothers were randomly assigned to one of two stress conditions or a neutral control separate from their infants. Following reunion, mother-infant physiological stress responses became synchronized for those mothers in the negative stress condition, t(368.43) = 2.56, p = .01, but not for those in the positive stress (p = .92) or control conditions (p = .21). Mothers transmitted their negative stress state to their infants, manifested through physiological synchrony
2. Fifty mothers (68% White, 20% Asian, 10% Latina, 2% multi-ethnic) all received the negative stress condition. Upon reunion with their infants, half the mothers were randomly assigned to touch/hold their infants and half were assigned to play without touching their infants. We found that mother-infant physiological stress responses became more strongly synchronized over time for those in the touch condition, t(144.45) = 2.54, p = .012, but not for those in the no-touch condition, t(109.11) = 1.25, p = .21. Touch is one mechanism through which mothers transmit their physiological stress to their infants.
3. Fifty-one mothers (60% White, 17% Asian, 14% Latina, 6% African American, 4% biracial) experienced a relaxation induction designed to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). Upon reunion with their infants, mothers were randomly assigned to the touch or no-touch conditions. We found evidence that mother-infant PNS responses were positively synchronized, t(86.70) = 1.83, p = .07. Mothers transmitted their low arousal positive affect state to their infants, manifested through PNS synchrony.
4. Twenty-six mothers (95% White, 5% multi-ethnic) reported on their own history of childhood adversity (MACE = 2.56, SD = 2.72) and half were randomly assigned to the negative stress condition. We found mother-infant physiological stress synchrony regardless of maternal childhood adversity, t(364) = 2.04, p = .042. Mother-infant PNS synchrony was negative for mothers with less childhood adversity and positive for those with more adversity, t(356) = 2.16, p = .032. Mothers’ early adversity impact the transmission of PNS but not stress states.
5. Sixty-four mothers (83% White, 7% Asian, 5% Latina, 5% Indigenous) reported on their own childhood adversity (MACE = 1.61, SD = 2.17) and their infants’ temperament and experienced a stress task with their infants. Analyses are underway to examine mother-infant PNS synchrony as a function of maternal childhood adversity and in relation to infants’ temperamental self-regulation.

Authors

• Sara F Waters, Washington State University
  Presenting Author

• Tessa West, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helena Rose Karnilowicz, University of California - Berkeley
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maria Amy Gartstein, Washington State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Wendy Berry Mendes, University of California, San Francisco
  Non-Presenting Author