Maternal Genotypes and Mother-Infant Attachment As Moderators Of The Association Between The Early Rearing Environment And Cortisol Secretion

Cortisol Secretion ◽

Secure Attachment ◽

Strange Situation ◽

Infant Attachment ◽

Maternal History ◽

Rearing Environment ◽

History Of ◽

Early Rearing

Background: This dissertation examines maternal genotypes and mother-infant attachment as moderators of the association between the early rearing environment and cortisol secretion. Study 1 examines whether DRD2, SLC6A3, and OXTR genes moderate the association between maternal history of care and maternal cortisol secretion. Study 2 examines mother-infant attachment as a moderator of the associations between maternal depressive symptoms and both infant and maternal cortisol secretion. Method: Mothers self-reported their history of care and depressive symptoms at infant age 16 months. At 17 months, mother-infant attachment was assessed in the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP). Salivary cortisol was assessed at baseline and at 20- and 40-minutes post-SSP. Buccal cells were collected for genotyping. Results: Study 1 revealed that maternal history of low care predicts elevated cortisol secretion, but only for mothers with 10-repeat alleles of SLC6A3 or G alleles of OXTR. Study 2 revealed that maternal depressive symptoms predict elevated cortisol secretion, but only for infants and mothers in non-secure attachment relationships. Conclusions: This dissertation enhances our understanding of the complex relations between the early rearing environment and maternal and infant cortisol secretion.

DRD2, DAT1, COMT, and OXTR Genes as Potential Moderators of the Relationship Between Maternal History of Maltreatment and Infant Emotion Regulation

10.32920/ryerson.14647404.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Vanessa Villani

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Genetic Interaction ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Differential Sensitivity ◽

Maternal History ◽

Interaction Models ◽

Gxe Interaction ◽

Background: Gene-environment (GXE) interaction models have demonstrated that DRD2, DAT1, COMT, and OXTR SNPs moderate parental factors (i.e., maternal depression, parenting) to predict outcomes related to emotion regulation (e.g., affective problems, attentional control). No studies have investigated the connections between maternal maltreatment history and infant dopamine and oxytocin gene variants as they relate to infant emotion regulation. The current study addresses these gaps, evaluating the interaction of selected genes as they interact with maternal history of maltreatment to predict infant emotion regulation. Method: I investigated five infant genotypes (DRD2, DAT1, COMT, OXTR rs53576, and OXTR rs2254298) as they interacted with maternal history of self-reported maltreatment to predict observed infant emotion regulation behaviours. Self-reported maternal depressive symptoms were covaried. Infant emotion regulation was observed in the context of a potent stressor. I assessed three potential models of interaction, diathesis-stress, differential sensitivity, or vantage sensitivity. Results: Analyses demonstrated that, over and above maternal depressive symptoms, DRD2 and COMT significantly interacted with self-reported maternal maltreatment scores in a ‘vantage sensitivity’ model and DAT1 significantly interacted with maternal maltreatment history in a ‘diathesis-stress’ model. A cumulative vantage sensitivity (CVS) index significantly interacted with maternal maltreatment history to predict emotion regulation scores, consistent with a vantage sensitivity model. Conclusions: Findings indicated that infants with the “vantage” DRD2 (A1+) and COMT (Met) alleles, when exposed to mothers with lesser histories of maltreatment, fair better in terms of regulation than their non-susceptible counterparts. Infants with the “risk” DAT1 (presence of the 9-repeat) allele, when exposed to a parent with a greater history of maltreatment, tended to fare worse in terms of regulation behaviours. These differences in genetic interaction models suggest that an adaptive variation in genetic vulnerability and vantage-sensitivity, across an infant’s genome, can increase the possibility for optimal self-regulation outcomes, whether the environment is favourable or less favourable (i.e., lower versus higher history of maternal maltreatment, respectively).

DRD2, DAT1, COMT, and OXTR Genes as Potential Moderators of the Relationship Between Maternal History of Maltreatment and Infant Emotion Regulation

10.32920/ryerson.14647404 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Vanessa Villani

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Genetic Interaction ◽

Self Regulation ◽

Differential Sensitivity ◽

Maternal History ◽

Interaction Models ◽

Gxe Interaction ◽

Background: Gene-environment (GXE) interaction models have demonstrated that DRD2, DAT1, COMT, and OXTR SNPs moderate parental factors (i.e., maternal depression, parenting) to predict outcomes related to emotion regulation (e.g., affective problems, attentional control). No studies have investigated the connections between maternal maltreatment history and infant dopamine and oxytocin gene variants as they relate to infant emotion regulation. The current study addresses these gaps, evaluating the interaction of selected genes as they interact with maternal history of maltreatment to predict infant emotion regulation. Method: I investigated five infant genotypes (DRD2, DAT1, COMT, OXTR rs53576, and OXTR rs2254298) as they interacted with maternal history of self-reported maltreatment to predict observed infant emotion regulation behaviours. Self-reported maternal depressive symptoms were covaried. Infant emotion regulation was observed in the context of a potent stressor. I assessed three potential models of interaction, diathesis-stress, differential sensitivity, or vantage sensitivity. Results: Analyses demonstrated that, over and above maternal depressive symptoms, DRD2 and COMT significantly interacted with self-reported maternal maltreatment scores in a ‘vantage sensitivity’ model and DAT1 significantly interacted with maternal maltreatment history in a ‘diathesis-stress’ model. A cumulative vantage sensitivity (CVS) index significantly interacted with maternal maltreatment history to predict emotion regulation scores, consistent with a vantage sensitivity model. Conclusions: Findings indicated that infants with the “vantage” DRD2 (A1+) and COMT (Met) alleles, when exposed to mothers with lesser histories of maltreatment, fair better in terms of regulation than their non-susceptible counterparts. Infants with the “risk” DAT1 (presence of the 9-repeat) allele, when exposed to a parent with a greater history of maltreatment, tended to fare worse in terms of regulation behaviours. These differences in genetic interaction models suggest that an adaptive variation in genetic vulnerability and vantage-sensitivity, across an infant’s genome, can increase the possibility for optimal self-regulation outcomes, whether the environment is favourable or less favourable (i.e., lower versus higher history of maternal maltreatment, respectively).

Infant attachment strategies, infant mental lag, and maternal depressive symptoms: Predictors of internalizing and externalizing problems at age 7.

Developmental Psychology ◽

10.1037/0012-1649.33.4.681 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 33 (4) ◽

pp. 681-692 ◽

Cited By ~ 212

Author(s):

Karlen Lyons-Ruth ◽

M. Ann Easterbrooks ◽

Cherilyn Davidson Cibelli

Keyword(s):

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Externalizing Problems ◽

Infant Attachment ◽

Internalizing And Externalizing Problems ◽

Internalizing And Externalizing ◽

Attachment Strategies

The Strange Situation of the Ethological Theory of Attachment

The Cultural Nature of Attachment ◽

10.7551/mitpress/9780262036900.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Marga Vicedo

Keyword(s):

Attachment Theory ◽

The Other ◽

Secure Attachment ◽

Strange Situation ◽

Attachment Patterns ◽

This chapter examines the history of some challenges to John Bowlby’s and Mary Ainsworth’s ethological attachment theory (EAT). Bowlby and Ainsworth argued that the mother-infant relationship is a natural dyad designed by evolution in which the instinctual responses of one party activate instinctual responses in the other, and that secure attachment is an adaptation. This chapter focuses on EAT’s two fundamental tenets: the universality of attachment patterns and the biological foundations of the attachment system. It shows that several scholars have challenged those tenets over the years and argues that attachment researchers have not addressed those challenges successfully.

Sexual abuse as a factor in child maltreatment by adolescent mothers of preschool aged children

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579400007239 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 497-509 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Susan J. Spieker ◽

Lillian Bensley ◽

Robert J. McMahon ◽

Hellen Fung ◽

Eric Ossiander

Keyword(s):

Sexual Abuse ◽

Child Maltreatment ◽

Adolescent Mothers ◽

Sexually Abused ◽

Strange Situation ◽

Infant Attachment ◽

Protective Service ◽

Teaching Interaction ◽

History Of ◽

A Prospective Study

AbstractWe examined the role of a history of sexual abuse as a predictor of child maltreatment by adolescent mothers in a prospective study of 104 mother-child dyads. Mothers were interviewed about any experienced abuse, and the mother-child dyads were observed in a teaching interaction and in the Strange Situation when the children were 1 year old. Three and a half years later, the mothers were interviewed about their Child Protective Service (CPS) contacts since the birth of their children. The percentage of mothers reporting CPS contacts for their own children was 15.4%, 38.5%, and 83.3%, respectively, for those mothers with no history of sexual abuse, a history of a single incident or brief duration of sexual abuse, and those mothers with a history of chronic sexual abuse (median 24 months duration; test of increasing trend significant atp< .000009). Mothers who reported having been chronically sexually abused as children were significantly more likely to have CPS contacts for their own children, after controlling for history of physical abuse, quality of early teaching interactions, and infant attachment security (both of which also predicted CPS contacts), race, IQ, welfare status at 1 year postpartum, and history of foster care.

Maternal DRD2, SLC6A3, and OXTR genotypes as potential moderators of the relation between maternal history of care and maternal cortisol secretion in the context of mother-infant separation

Biological Psychology ◽

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.09.004 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 129 ◽

pp. 154-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jaclyn A. Ludmer ◽

Brittany Jamieson ◽

Andrea Gonzalez ◽

Robert Levitan ◽

James Kennedy ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cortisol Secretion ◽

Maternal History ◽

Quality of attachment in St Petersburg (Russian Federation): A sample of family-reared infants

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry ◽

10.1177/1359104510365453 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 355-362 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Natalia L. Pleshkova ◽

Rifkat J. Muhamedrahimov

Keyword(s):

Russian Federation ◽

Previous History ◽

Secure Attachment ◽

Strange Situation ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Study Results ◽

History Of ◽

The Russian Federation ◽

Attachment Pattern

The study aimed to describe the quality of attachment in the sample of children living in St Petersburg (Russian Federation). Up to the present there were no studies on quality of attachment relationship among infants living in families in the Russian Federation (RF), including families living in St Petersburg. The study results have an important value for understanding of development of attachment patterns in a changing society with a previous history of being a totalitarian state. The St Petersburg sample consisted of 130 children, living in families, aged 11—16 months old (mean = 13.3 months). Children were living in largely normative low-risk families. The Strange Situation Procedure was used (Ainsworth Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). The attachment categories were classified according to the criteria of the DMM model (Crittenden, 2002). Results presented show that 50% of children showed the complex strategies (pre-A3—4 compulsive caregiving and compliant, pre-C3—4 aggressive and feigned helpless, A/C). It was found that among a St Petersburg sample of families there was small number of children with secure attachment pattern and many children with complex attachment strategies.