Poster #14 - Threat Versus Deprivation in Mother's Childhood: Differential Relations to Hair Cortisol and Psychopathology in Pregnancy

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Background: There is substantial evidence that the negative effects of childhood maltreatment can be intergenerational and that the prenatal period may play an important role in this intergenerational transmission. Maternal HPA axis dysfunction and maternal psychopathology represent two mechanisms through which the effects of childhood maltreatment are thought to be transmitted. This study sought to extend prior research on pathways of this transmission by testing whether mothers’ childhood experiences of abuse versus neglect differentially are related to maternal HPA axis functioning, assessed by mothers’ hair cortisol concentration (HCC), and maternal psychopathology, assessed by mothers’ reports of depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms, during pregnancy.

Methods: During the third trimester of pregnancy, N=51 women (M=32.56 years old, 15.7% Hispanic/Latina, 3.9% Black or African American, 11.8% Asian American, 2.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 9.8% Multiracial, 70.6% White) completed the Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure scale (MACE; Teicher & Parigger, 2015), the Edinburgh Prenatal/Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS; Cox et al., 1987), and the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5; Weathers et al., 2013), and provided a hair sample for cortisol assay. In addition, mothers reported on their lifetime involvement with child protective services as a parent due to concerns about the welfare of any of their children through four months postpartum.

Results: Linear regression models, with childhood abuse and neglect severity entered as simultaneous independent variables, and controlling for sociodemographic covariates, indicated that greater severity of neglect in mothers’ childhood (β = -.437, p = .031), but not abuse (β = .118, p = .564), was associated with lower maternal HCC during pregnancy. In contrast, greater severity of abuse in childhood (β = .488, p = .020), but not neglect (β = -.233, p = .256), was associated with higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms in pregnancy. Neither abuse (β = .363, p = .092) nor neglect severity (β = -.059, p = .772) was associated with prenatal posttraumatic stress symptoms. In exploratory logistic regression analyses, lower maternal HCC (β = -.785, p < .001), but not maternal psychopathology, was associated with maternal involvement with child protective services as a parent.

Discussion: Higher severity of childhood neglect was associated with lower HCC during pregnancy, while higher severity of childhood abuse was associated with higher depressive symptoms. Exploratory findings indicate that HPA axis hypoactivity (low HCC) was associated with child protective service involvement as a mother, suggesting that HCC could be a potential mechanism in the transmission of maternal childhood neglect that should be further explored in larger samples. Findings extend prior work by highlighting that the intergenerational transmission of negative effects of childhood abuse and neglect may operate through different pathways in the prenatal period.

Authors

• Francesca Penner, Yale University
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer Khoury, Mount Saint Vincent University

• Michelle Bosquet Enlow, Boston Children's Hospital

• Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Harvard Medical School