Psychology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA.
Psychology Department, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2021 Jul;63(5):1098-1108. doi: 10.1002/dev.22098. Epub 2021 Feb 9.
Few studies have longitudinally assessed the relationship between infant stress reactivity and future parenting style. Studies show that stress-induced plasma cortisol concentrations are stable over development and that they can be utilized as a marker for stress reactivity. This study investigates the relationship between stress-induced plasma cortisol concentrations in infancy and later parenting behavior in a translational nonhuman primate model. We hypothesized that higher stress-induced cortisol levels in infancy would predict impairments in maternal behaviors in adulthood. Subjects were rhesus macaque females (N = 122; Macaca mulatta), assessed as infants and again as mothers. At 3-4 months of age, subjects underwent a standardized BioBehavioral Assessment during which blood samples were obtained and they were assessed for behaviorally inhibition. Approximately 7 years later, subjects were observed as they interacted with their own offspring for four 300-s sessions. Typical rhesus monkey mother-offspring behaviors were recorded, including approaches and leaves and maternal cradling. Results showed that subjects' stress-induced cortisol concentrations and whether they exhibited behavioral inhibition as infants predicted later maternal behavior, with high cortisol concentrations and behavioral inhibition predicting high rates of offspring approaches and leaves and low rates of maternal cradling. Results also showed that higher stress-induced cortisol concentrations in infancy predicted higher scores on the Brown Index, an indication that the subjects' offspring, rather than the subject themselves, initiated changes in proximity. Taken together, these results suggest that individuals that exhibit higher stress-induced cortisol concentrations and behavioral inhibition at 3-4 months of age are at risk for engaging in less sensitive parenting behaviors as adults. To the extent that these findings generalize to humans, they suggest an important link between stress-induced cortisol concentrations and behavioral inhibition in infancy and behavior later in life, such that early-life stress reactivity can serve as a marker for later parenting behavior.
很少有研究从纵向角度评估婴儿应激反应与未来养育方式之间的关系。研究表明，应激诱导的血浆皮质醇浓度在发育过程中是稳定的，可以作为应激反应的标志物。本研究在转化型非人类灵长类动物模型中调查了婴儿期应激诱导的血浆皮质醇浓度与后期养育行为之间的关系。我们假设婴儿期应激诱导的皮质醇水平较高会预测成年后母亲行为受损。研究对象为恒河猴雌性（N=122；Macaca mulatta），在婴儿期和成年后再次进行评估。在 3-4 个月大时，受试者在标准化的生物行为评估中接受测试，在此期间采集血液样本并评估其行为抑制情况。大约 7 年后，观察受试者与自己的后代进行四个 300 秒的互动。记录了典型的恒河猴母婴行为，包括接近和离开以及母亲的抱持。结果表明，受试者的应激诱导皮质醇浓度和他们在婴儿期是否表现出行为抑制会预测后期的母亲行为，高皮质醇浓度和行为抑制预测高的后代接近和离开率以及低的母亲抱持率。结果还表明，婴儿期应激诱导的皮质醇浓度较高预测 Brown 指数得分较高，表明受试者的后代而不是受试者自己发起了接近度的变化。综上所述，这些结果表明，在 3-4 个月大时表现出较高应激诱导皮质醇浓度和行为抑制的个体在成年后更有可能表现出不敏感的养育行为。在这些发现适用于人类的程度上，它们表明婴儿期应激诱导的皮质醇浓度和行为抑制与后期生活中的行为之间存在重要联系，即早期生活应激反应可以作为后期养育行为的标志物。
