Ulmer-Yaniv Adi, Yirmiya Karen, Peleg Itai, Zagoory-Sharon Orna, Feldman Ruth
Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience, Reichman University, Herzliya 4610101, Israel.
Biology (Basel). 2023 Jun 13;12(6):847. doi: 10.3390/biology12060847.
Premature birth disrupts the continuity of maternal-newborn bodily contact, which underpins the development of physiological and behavioral support systems. Utilizing a unique cohort of mother-preterm dyads who received skin-to-skin contact (Kangaroo Care, KC) versus controls, and following them to adulthood, we examined how a touch-based neonatal intervention impacts three adult outcomes; anxiety/depressive symptoms, oxytocin, and secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA), a biomarker of the immune system. Consistent with dynamic systems' theory, we found that links from KC to adult outcomes were indirect, mediated by its effects on maternal mood, child attention and executive functions, and mother-child synchrony across development. These improvements shaped adult outcomes via three mechanisms; (a) "sensitive periods", where the infancy improvement directly links with an outcome, for instance, infant attention linked with higher oxytocin and lower s-IgA; (b) "step-by-step continuity", where the infancy improvement triggers iterative changes across development, gradually shaping an outcome; for instance, mother-infant synchrony was stable across development and predicted lower anxiety/depressive symptoms; and (c) "inclusive mutual-influences", describing cross-time associations between maternal, child, and dyadic factors; for instance, from maternal mood to child executive functions and back. Findings highlight the long-term impact of a birth intervention across development and provide valuable insights on the mechanisms of "developmental continuity", among the key topics in developmental research.
早产会破坏母婴身体接触的连续性，而这种连续性是生理和行为支持系统发展的基础。我们利用一组独特的母亲 - 早产二元组队列，将接受皮肤接触（袋鼠式护理，KC）的与对照组进行对比，并跟踪他们至成年，研究了一种基于触摸的新生儿干预如何影响三个成年期的结果；焦虑/抑郁症状、催产素和分泌型免疫球蛋白A（s-IgA，免疫系统的一种生物标志物）。与动态系统理论一致，我们发现从KC到成年期结果的联系是间接的，由其对母亲情绪、儿童注意力和执行功能以及整个发育过程中母婴同步性的影响所介导。这些改善通过三种机制塑造了成年期结果；（a）“敏感期”，即婴儿期的改善直接与一个结果相关联，例如，婴儿注意力与较高的催产素和较低的s-IgA相关；（b）“逐步连续性”，即婴儿期的改善引发整个发育过程中的迭代变化，逐渐塑造一个结果；例如，母婴同步性在整个发育过程中保持稳定，并预测较低的焦虑/抑郁症状；以及（c）“包容性相互影响”，描述了母亲、儿童和二元因素之间的跨时间关联；例如，从母亲情绪到儿童执行功能，再反过来。研究结果突出了一种出生干预在整个发育过程中的长期影响，并为发育研究的关键主题之一“发育连续性”的机制提供了有价值的见解。
