Knorr Delaney A, Fox Molly M
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Evol Hum Sci. 2023 Nov 9;6:e7. doi: 10.1017/ehs.2023.27. eCollection 2024.
Ethnic discrimination during pregnancy is linked to maternal psychological distress, adverse birth outcomes and increased offspring morbidity and mortality. An evolutionary perspective reframes offspring health issues as a risk to maternal fitness. We argue that kin may be evolutionarily motivated to buffer psychosocial stressors for the mother during pregnancy. Previously, we found that the relationship of a pregnant woman with her own mother (fetus' maternal grandmother) had a positive association on maternal prenatal psychology, above and beyond her relationship with her fetus' father. Here, we ask if grandmothers buffer mothers' prenatal psychological distress from ethnic discrimination. Using self-report data collected from 216 pregnant Latina women living in Southern California, we found discrimination to be significantly, positively associated with depression, anxiety, and stress in linear regression models. Maternal grandmother communication attenuated the association of discrimination and all three psychological distress measures, adjusting for the mother's relationship with the father. Maternal grandmother emotional support similarly significantly moderated the relationship of discrimination with depression and anxiety. We did not observe any significant interactions for paternal grandmother relationships. Geographic proximity was not a significant stress buffer. Results suggest the important role maternal grandmothers play in perinatal mental health, and that these benefits exist uncoupled from geographic proximity.
孕期的种族歧视与母亲的心理困扰、不良分娩结局以及后代发病率和死亡率的增加有关。从进化的角度来看，后代健康问题被重新定义为对母亲生育适应性的一种风险。我们认为，亲属可能在进化上有动机在孕期为母亲缓冲心理社会压力源。此前，我们发现，孕妇与其自己的母亲（胎儿的外祖母）的关系对母亲产前心理有积极影响，这种影响超出了她与胎儿父亲的关系。在此，我们探讨外祖母是否能缓冲母亲因种族歧视而产生的产前心理困扰。通过对居住在南加州的216名拉丁裔孕妇收集的自我报告数据，我们发现在线性回归模型中，歧视与抑郁、焦虑和压力显著正相关。外祖母的沟通减弱了歧视与所有这三种心理困扰指标之间的关联，并对母亲与父亲的关系进行了调整。外祖母的情感支持同样显著调节了歧视与抑郁和焦虑之间的关系。我们没有观察到祖母关系有任何显著的交互作用。地理距离并不是一个显著的压力缓冲因素。研究结果表明外祖母在围产期心理健康中发挥着重要作用，而且这些益处与地理距离无关。
