Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, 68159, Mannheim, Germany.
Clinic for General Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2017 Oct;124(10):1251-1260. doi: 10.1007/s00702-017-1770-3. Epub 2017 Jul 29.
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.
产前应激 (PS) 是精神障碍病因学中的一个既定风险因素。尽管母婴互动是婴儿应对压力的第一次重要训练，但对于 PS 对母婴二元行为的影响知之甚少。本研究旨在阐明怀孕期间心理和生理应激对母婴二元行为的前瞻性影响。在产后 6 个月时对母婴互动进行录像，并使用婴儿和照顾者参与阶段将其编码为三种二元模式：(1) 两者均为积极；(2) 婴儿抗议-母亲积极；和 (3) 婴儿抗议-母亲消极。在怀孕期间使用心理（即心理病理、感知和心理社会 PS；n=164）和生理应激测量（即母体皮质醇；n=134）评估 PS 暴露。组间比较表明，心理 PS 可预测产后 6 个月的母婴行为，表明产前高应激母亲的母婴对表现出明显更多的积极互动模式（即婴儿积极-母亲积极），与产前低应激组相比。生理 PS 与母婴行为无关。这些结果表明，轻度心理 PS 可能有利于积极的母婴二元行为，这与应激接种模型一致，该模型假设 PS 具有有益的影响。
