Maternal touch behaviors and infant cortisol production

• Grant number: 23/16192-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: November 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Ana Alexandra Caldas Osório
• Grantee: Beatriz Pacheco Bispo
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (UPM). Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/06693-4 - The importance of social touch for infant social-emotional development: integrating neuroimaging, psychophysiological, endocrine, and behavioral evidence, AP.JP2

Abstract

The term "stress response" regards the activation of rapid response systems to deal with environmental challenges, making energy readily available and thus facilitating behavioral and physiological changes that promote adaptive responses (Gunnar & Hostinar, 2015; McEwen, 1998). However, stress responses come at a cost - for example, by attenuating immune and anti-inflammatory processes - so it is essential that they are modulated in terms of their duration and energy expenditure. These modulatory processes - which are believed to include maternal touch behaviors - can be described as buffers of the stress response (Morrison, 2016). This work aims to analyze the associations between maternal touch behaviors and the patterns of infant cortisol production in the preceding 6 months.