Threat versus deprivation in mother's childhood: Differential relations to hair cortisol and psychopathology in pregnancy

Francesca Penner; Jennifer E Khoury; Michelle Bosquet Enlow; Karlen Lyons-Ruth

doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106107

Threat versus deprivation in mother's childhood: Differential relations to hair cortisol and psychopathology in pregnancy

Child Abuse Negl. 2023 May:139:106107. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106107. Epub 2023 Mar 2.

Authors

Francesca Penner¹, Jennifer E Khoury², Michelle Bosquet Enlow³, Karlen Lyons-Ruth⁴

Affiliations

¹ Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. Electronic address: Francesca.penner@yale.edu.
² Department of Psychology, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA.

PMID: 36870268
PMCID: PMC10101698 (available on 2024-05-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106107

Abstract

Background: The negative effects of childhood maltreatment can be intergenerational, and the prenatal period may play an important role in this intergenerational transmission. Maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction and maternal psychopathology represent two mechanisms through which the effects of childhood maltreatment are hypothesized to be transmitted across generations.

Objective: This study first sought to extend prior research on pathways of intergenerational transmission by examining whether mothers' childhood experiences of abuse versus neglect differentially relate to maternal HPA activity and to maternal psychopathology during the prenatal period. Second, exploratory analyses examined the links between maternal variables and their State Protective Service involvement as a parent, as an indicator of maladaptive caregiving.

Methods: During the third trimester of pregnancy, 51 women reported on experiences of childhood maltreatment, on State Protective Service involvement as an adult parent, and on current depressive and post-traumatic stress symptoms, and provided a hair sample for cortisol assay.

Results: Regression analyses indicated that greater severity of abuse, but not neglect, in childhood was associated with higher maternal depressive symptoms (β = 0.488, p = .020). In contrast, greater severity of neglect, but not abuse, in mothers' childhood was associated with lower maternal hair cortisol concentration (β = -0.437, p = .031). Lower maternal hair cortisol concentration, but not maternal psychopathology or severity of childhood abuse or neglect, in turn, was associated with State Protective Service involvement (β = -0.785, p < .001).

Conclusions: Findings extend prior work by suggesting that childhood abuse and neglect may have different sequelae for mothers during pregnancy and that these sequelae may have different relations to parenting.

Keywords: Abuse; Hair cortisol; Intergenerational transmission; Maternal depression; Neglect; Pregnancy.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adult
Child
Female
Hair / chemistry
Humans
Hydrocortisone / metabolism
Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System
Mental Disorders* / etiology
Mother-Child Relations
Mothers*
Pituitary-Adrenal System
Pregnancy
Stress, Psychological

Substances

Hydrocortisone

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding