Journal
EARLY HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Volume 91, Issue 3, Pages 173-179Publisher
ELSEVIER IRELAND LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2015.01.010
Keywords
5-HTTLPR; G x E study; Mother-infant interaction; Social stress; Still-face
Categories
Funding
- Italian Health Ministry to Scientific Institute, IRCCS Eugenio Medea (Bosisio Parini, Italy)
- Cariplo Foundation (Milan, Italy)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background: Maternal behavior and infant 5-HTTLPR polymorphism have been linked to infants' social stress reactivity and recovery at different ages. Nonetheless, Gene x Environment (G x E) studies focusing on early infancy are rare and have led to mixed results. Aim: To investigate the contribution of maternal social engagement and infants' 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in predicting infants' negative emotionality in response to a social stressor, namely maternal unresponsiveness. Study design: Cross-sectional, G x E study. Subjects: 73 4-month-old infants and their mothers took part to the Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) procedure. Outcome measures: A micro-analytical coding of negative emotionality was adopted to measure infants' reactivity to social stress (Still-Face episode) and infants' recovery after social stress (Reunion episode). Maternal contribution was measured as maternal social engagement during the Play episode. Infants were genotyped as S-carriers or L-homozygotes. Results: The interplay between maternal social engagement and infants' genotype was found to be predictive of infants' negative emotionality during both Still-Face and Reunion episodes of the FFSF paradigm. The interaction highlighted that maternal social engagement predicted minor negative emotionality during Still-Face and Reunion episodes for S-carrier infants, but not for L-homozygotes. Conclusions: Findings extend previous results on adults and children, highlighting that maternal behavior might be a protective factor for stress reactivity and regulation, especially for S-carrier infants who are at risk for heightened stress susceptibility. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available