Schuetze Pamela, Lopez Francisco A, Granger Douglas A, Eiden Rina D
Department of Psychology, State University of New York, College at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2008 Dec;50(8):819-34. doi: 10.1002/dev.20334.
We examined the association between prenatal exposure to cigarettes and adrenocortical responses to stress in 7-month-old infants. Cortisol levels were assessed twice prior to and twice following affect-eliciting procedures in 111 (59 exposed and 52 nonexposed) infants. Cortisol reactivity was defined as the difference between the peak poststressor cortisol level and the pretask cortisol level. Higher values indicated higher cortisol reactivity. Exposed infants had higher peak cortisol reactivity than nonexposed infants. There were no differences in pretask cortisol levels. Maternal hostility mediated the association between cigarette exposure and peak cortisol reactivity. Furthermore, infant gender moderated this association such that exposed boys had significantly higher peak cortisol reactivity than nonexposed infants or exposed girls. These findings provide additional evidence that prenatal cigarette exposure is associated with dysregulation during infancy and that early adverse, nonsocial experiences may have relatively long-lasting effects on cortisol reactivity in infants.
我们研究了产前接触香烟与7个月大婴儿肾上腺皮质对应激反应之间的关联。对111名婴儿（59名接触香烟组和52名未接触香烟组）在诱发情绪程序之前和之后分别进行了两次皮质醇水平评估。皮质醇反应性定义为应激后皮质醇峰值水平与任务前皮质醇水平之间的差异。数值越高表明皮质醇反应性越高。接触香烟组婴儿的皮质醇峰值反应性高于未接触香烟组婴儿。任务前皮质醇水平无差异。母亲的敌意介导了香烟接触与皮质醇峰值反应性之间的关联。此外，婴儿性别调节了这种关联，使得接触香烟的男孩比未接触香烟的婴儿或接触香烟的女孩具有显著更高的皮质醇峰值反应性。这些发现提供了额外的证据，表明产前接触香烟与婴儿期的调节异常有关，并且早期不良的非社交经历可能对婴儿的皮质醇反应性产生相对持久的影响。
