Impact of prenatal stress on mother-infant dyadic behavior during the still-face paradigm

Isabell Ann-Cathrin Wolf; Maria Gilles; Verena Peus; Barbara Scharnholz; Julia Seibert; Christine Jennen-Steinmetz; Bertram Krumm; Marcella Rietschel; Michael Deuschle; Manfred Laucht

doi:10.1186/s40479-018-0078-8

Impact of prenatal stress on mother-infant dyadic behavior during the still-face paradigm

Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul. 2018 Jan 22:5:2. doi: 10.1186/s40479-018-0078-8. eCollection 2018.

Affiliations

¹ 1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim / Heidelberg University, J 5, 68159 Mannheim, Germany.
² Clinic for General Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University Hospital, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
³ 3Department of Biostatistics, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
⁴ 4Department of Genetic Epidemiology in Psychiatry, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
⁵ 5Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany.
⁶ 6Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Mother-infant interaction provides important training for the infant's ability to cope with stress and the development of resilience. Prenatal stress (PS) and its impact on the offspring's development have long been a focus of stress research, with studies highlighting both harmful and beneficial effects. The aim of the current study was to examine the possible influence of both psychological stress and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity during pregnancy with mother-child dyadic behavior following stress exposure.

Methods: The behavior of 164 mother-infant dyads during the still-face situation was filmed at six months postpartum and coded into three dyadic patterns: 1) both positive, 2) infant protesting-mother positive, and 3) infant protesting-mother negative. PS exposure was assessed prenatally according to psychological measures (i.e., psychopathological, perceived and psychosocial PS; n = 164) and HPA axis activity measures (maternal salivary cortisol, i.e., cortisol decline and area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg); n = 134).

Results: Mother-infant dyads in both the high- and low-stress groups showed decreasing positive and increasing negative dyadic behavior in the reunion episode, which is associated with the well-known "still-face" and "carry-over" effect. Furthermore, mother-infant dyads with higher psychosocial PS exhibited significantly more positive dyadic behavior than the low psychosocial PS group in the first play episode, but not in the reunion episode. Similarly, mother-infant dyads with high HPA axis activity (i.e. high AUCg) but steeper diurnal cortisol decline (i.e. cortisol decline) displayed significantly less negative behavior in the reunion episode than dyads with low HPA axis activity. No significant results were found for psychopathological stress and perceived stress.

Conclusions: The results suggest a beneficial effect of higher psychosocial PS and higher prenatal maternal HPA axis activity in late gestation, which is in line with "stress inoculation" theories.

Keywords: Cortisol; Face-to-face still-face paradigm; Prenatal stress; Psychosocial stress; Resilience.