Pickles Andrew, Sharp Helen, Hellier Jennifer, Hill Jonathan
Biostatistics Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College, London, UK.
Institute of Psychology, Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017 Mar;26(3):325-334. doi: 10.1007/s00787-016-0886-6. Epub 2016 Jul 27.
Animal findings of long-term effects of maternal behaviors mediated via altered GR gene expression will, if translated into humans, have far reaching implications for our understanding of child and adolescent psychopathology. We have previously shown that mothers' self-reported stroking of their infants modifies associations between prenatal depression and anxiety and child outcomes at 29 weeks and 2.5 years. Here, we examine whether the effect of early maternal stroking is evident at 3.5 years, and in a much larger sample than in previous publications. A general population sample of 1233 first-time mothers completed anxiety measures at 20 weeks gestation, 865 reported on infant stroking at 9 weeks, and 813 on child symptoms at 3.5 years. Maternal stroking moderated the association between pregnancy-specific anxiety and internalizing (p = 0.010) and externalizing (p = 0.004) scores, such that an effect of PSA to increase symptoms was markedly reduced for mothers who reported high levels of stroking. There was no effect of maternal stroking on general anxiety. The findings confirm the previously reported effect of maternal stroking, and in a much larger sample. They indicate that there are long-term effects of early maternal stroking, modifying associations between prenatal anxiety and child emotional and behavioral symptoms.
通过改变GR基因表达介导的母亲行为长期影响的动物研究结果，如果能应用于人类，将对我们理解儿童和青少年精神病理学产生深远影响。我们之前已经表明，母亲自我报告的抚摸婴儿行为改变了产前抑郁和焦虑与29周和2.5岁儿童结局之间的关联。在此，我们研究早期母亲抚摸的影响在3.5岁时是否明显，以及样本量是否比之前的出版物大得多。一个由1233名初产妇组成的普通人群样本在妊娠20周时完成了焦虑测量，865人在9周时报告了婴儿抚摸情况，813人在3.5岁时报告了儿童症状。母亲抚摸调节了特定妊娠焦虑与内化（p = 0.010）和外化（p = 0.004）得分之间的关联，因此对于报告高频率抚摸的母亲，特定妊娠焦虑增加症状的效应明显降低。母亲抚摸对一般焦虑没有影响。这些发现证实了之前报道的母亲抚摸的效应，并且样本量更大。它们表明早期母亲抚摸具有长期影响，改变了产前焦虑与儿童情绪和行为症状之间的关联。
