Impact of prenatal stress on the dyadic behavior of mothers and their 6-month-old infants during a play situation

• Verfasst von: Wolf, Isabell Ann-Cathrin [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Deuschle, Michael [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Laucht, Manfred [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Impact of prenatal stress on the dyadic behavior of mothers and their 6-month-old infants during a play situation
• Titelzusatz: role of different dimensions of stress
• Verf.angabe: Isabell Ann-Cathrin Wolf, Maria Gilles, Verena Peus, Barbara Scharnholz, Julia Seibert, Christine Jennen-Steinmetz, Bertram Krumm, Michael Deuschle, Manfred Laucht
• E-Jahr: 2017
• Jahr: 29 July 2017
• Umfang: 10 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 29.08.2018
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Journal of neural transmission
• Ort Quelle: Wien [u.a.] : Springer, 1950
• Jahr Quelle: 2017
• Band/Heft Quelle: 124(2017), 10, Seite 1251-1260
• ISSN Quelle: 1435-1463
• DOI: doi:10.1007/s00702-017-1770-3
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: Cortisol
• Sach-SW: Mother-infant behavior
• Sach-SW: Pregnancy
• Sach-SW: Prenatal stress
• Sach-SW: Stress inoculation
• K10plus-PPN: 1580487971

Abstract

Prenatal stress (PS) is an established risk factor in the etiology of mental disorders. Although mother-child interaction is the infant’s first important training in dealing with stress, little is yet known about the impact of PS on mother-infant dyadic behavior. The current study aimed to elucidate the prospective influence of psychological and physiological stresses during pregnancy on mother-infant dyadic behavior. Mother-infant interactions were videotaped at 6-month postpartum and coded into three dyadic patterns: (1) both positive; (2) infant protesting-mother positive; and (3) infant protesting-mother negative, using the infant and caregiver engagement phases. Exposure to PS was assessed during pregnancy using psychological (i.e., psychopathological, perceived, and psychosocial PS; n = 164) and physiological stress measures (i.e., maternal cortisol; n = 134). Group comparisons showed that psychosocial PS was predictive of mother-infant behavior at 6-month postpartum, indicating that dyads of prenatally high-stressed mothers exhibited significantly more positive interaction patterns (i.e., infant positive-mother positive) as compared to the prenatally low-stressed group. Physiological PS was unrelated to mother-infant behavior. These results suggest that mild psychosocial PS may be advantageous for positive mother-infant dyadic behavior, which is in accordance with the stress-inoculation model that assumes a beneficial effect of PS.