The impact of maternal childhood adversities of the dynamics of parenting: a study on the mother and infant relationship at 14 months

• Grant number: 24/07936-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Agreement: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Principal Investigator: Andrea Parolin Jackowski
• Grantee: Mariana Elma Pereira
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/21612-0 - Maternal adversity, inflammation, and neurodevelopment: how intergenerational processes perpetuate disadvantage in a low-resource setting, AP.TEM

Abstract

Adverse Childhood Experiences (AIE) occur when a child is exposed to and experiences stressful situations during their development, such as physical or emotional neglect, physical and emotional abuse, maltreatment, exposure to serious mental health problems and other situations such as food insecurity. Studies highlight that ACEs experienced by the mother can be transmitted to the next generation in the prenatal period through placental changes during pregnancy or postnatally, through indirect mechanisms, such as inadequate parenting practices and maternal mental illness. One aspect that has a great influence on an individual's development is the quality of mother-infant interaction. A positive quality of mother-infant interaction is associated with a range of beneficial outcomes for children, including improved linguistic, cognitive, motor and social development. Maternal ACEs can also be detrimental to the quality of mother-infant interaction, directly or indirectly, for example, mediated by depression. Furthermore, a meta-analysis showed that there is a small but significant direct effect of ACEs on the quality of mother-infant interaction. Yet another review, the most recent, found that 90% of studies indicate that there is a negative association between maternalACEs and maternal behavior (affection, emotional availability, sensitivity, communication and bonding). This study aims to evaluate the impact of exposure to adverse events in maternal childhood on the quality of mother-infant interaction