Mothers’ Childhood Maltreatment, Not Adulthood Socioeconomic Risk, is Associated with Altered Parasympathetic Self-Regulation during Parenting

• In Event: Parenthood at Risk: Disentangling Influences of Maternal Childhood Maltreatment from Other Adverse Experiences

Abstract

Introduction: Early life stressors, such as childhood maltreatment, impair regulatory systems that underlie the ability to respond effectively to challenges (Propper & Holochwost, 2013). Parenting is one such challenge, and parenting difficulties exhibited by maltreated mothers may be explained by deficits in self-regulation, including parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) functioning. However, socioeconomic disadvantage in adulthood is also associated with decrements in self-regulation (Wade et al., 2017) and parenting (Lengua et al., 2014). Little research has attempted to disentangle the effects of childhood maltreatment from adulthood socioeconomic risk on parent PNS self-regulation, particularly during challenging interactions with their children. Therefore, the current study aimed to clarify the roles of childhood versus adulthood adversity in impairments in mothers’ self-regulation.

Method: Families had to meet one of the following risk criteria to participate: previous or current involvement with Child Protective Services, total annual income of 200% of the federal poverty line or less, or use of public assistance (e.g., housing subsidies, food stamps) in the past three years. Mothers (N = 107) were assessed when their children were two and a half (T1) and three (T2) years of age. The majority of mothers had more than a high-school education (88%) and were married (67%); 73% of mothers were White.

At T1, mothers provided information about demographic characteristics, mental health, and life events. Following prior work (Lengua et al., 2007), a cumulative index of socioeconomic risk was computed from mothers’ age, race, education, income, marital and occupational status. Mothers also completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ; Bernstein & Fink, 1998). The total score—the sum of all maltreatment subtypes—was used.

At T2, mothers’ Respiratory Sinus Arrythmia (RSA), an index of PNS functioning, was assessed during the Parent-Child Challenge Task (PCCT; Lunkenheimer et al., 2017). This 10-minute task was designed to assess parent-child problem-solving and provided variation in difficulty across task conditions (PCCT-Baseline, PCCT-Challenge, PCCT-Recovery).

Results: Separate multilevel autoregressive models were conducted for PCCT-Baseline, PCCT-Challenge, and PCCT-Recovery to examine how mothers’ PNS self-regulation was associated with their childhood maltreatment and current socioeconomic risk. Child externalizing behaviors were included as a covariate to account for differences in disruptive child behavior that might impact mothers’ PNS self-regulation.

Mothers’ higher childhood maltreatment was associated with more positive PNS self-regulation during PCCT-Baseline (b = .005, p < .05) and PCCT-Challenge (b = .004, p < .05) conditions, indicating greater RSA increases, or augmentation, over time. At a one-unit increase in maltreatment, the parameter for mothers’ self-regulation was adjusted by b = .005 and b = .004, becoming more positive in the Baseline and Challenge tasks, respectively. These effects were apparent controlling for socioeconomic risk, which was not associated with PNS self-regulation.

Conclusion: Parenting preschoolers in challenging moments requires effort typically indicated by RSA withdrawal. Thus, the RSA augmentation exhibited by maltreated mothers in this study may indicate a lack of appropriate engagement or regulation while interacting with their children. Information about how childhood maltreatment and socioeconomic risk are associated with self-regulation during parenting may inform more targeted parenting interventions.

Authors

• Alex Busuito, Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
  Presenting Author

• Erika S. Lunkenheimer, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author