Hurricane Katrina-Related Maternal Stress, Maternal Mental Health, and Early Infant Temperament

Abstract

To investigate temperament in infants whose mothers were exposed to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, and to determine if high hurricane exposure is associated with difficult infant temperament. A prospective cohort study of women giving birth in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA (n=288) in 2006–2007 was conducted. Questionnaires and interviews assessed the mother’s experiences during the hurricane, living conditions, and psychological symptoms, two months and 12 months postpartum. Infant temperament characteristics were reported by the mother using the activity, adaptability, approach, intensity, and mood scales of the Early Infant and Toddler Temperament Questionnaires, and “difficult temperament” was defined as scoring in the top quartile for three or more of the scales. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between hurricane experience, mental health, and infant temperament. Serious experiences of the hurricane did not strongly increase the risk of difficult infant temperament (association with 3 or more serious experiences of the hurricane: adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.50, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.63–3.58 at 2 months; 0.58, 0.15–2.28 at 12 months). Maternal mental health was associated with report of difficult infant temperament, with women more likely to report having a difficult infant temperament at one year if they had screened positive for PTSD (aOR 1.82, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.61–5.41), depression, (aOR 3.16, 95% CI 1.22–8.20) or hostility (aOR 2.17, 95% CI 0.81–5.82) at 2 months. Large associations between maternal stress due to a natural disaster and infant temperament were not seen, but maternal mental health was associated with reporting difficult temperament. Further research is needed to determine the effects of maternal exposure to disasters on child temperament, but in order to help babies born in the aftermath of disaster, the focus may need to be on the mother’s mental health.

The effects of maternal stress and illness during pregnancy on infant temperament: Project Ice Storm

“…Interestingly, the present results are in line with those obtained for women who became pregnant post-Hurricane Katrina by Tees et al (9): in both studies, objectively defined disaster-related experiences had no direct effects on temperament status. However, in the present study, objective hardship combined with maternal illness/infection to explain a portion of the infants' fussy/difficult ratings.…”

“…One study that assessed the effect of maternal exposure to a natural disaster found that while hurricanerelated experiences (i.e., damage to home, life in danger, walking through floodwaters) were unrelated to temperament status, increased number of hurricane-related post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms were related to more difficult infant temperaments (9). Furthermore, high levels of maternal cortisol during pregnancy have also been shown to be associated with poorer infant temperaments either directly (10) or by its effect on birth weight (11).…”

Prenatal exposure to disaster-related traumatic stress and developmental trajectories of temperament in early childhood: Superstorm Sandy pregnancy study

“…Furthermore, PMNS has been largely addressed as normative stress in everyday life (Rubonis and Bickman, 1991) that can be increased by other factors such as maternal psychopathology and socioeconomic status. Fewer prospective human studies have examined the effects of large-scale disastrous events (e.g., Quebec Ice Storm, Hurricane Katrina, and World Trade Center terrorism) on developmental programming (Brand et al, 2006; Huizink et al, 2007; King and Laplante, 2005; Kuvacic et al, 1996; Laplante et al, 2016, 2008; Meijer, 1985; Tees et al, 2010; Yehuda et al, 2005), and the findings are inconsistent regarding the impact of maternal stress during pregnancy and temperament. When Laplante et al (2016) studied the impact of the Quebec Ice Storm, they found that elevated levels of mother’s subjective stress reaction to the ice storm during pregnancy were associated with difficult temperament characteristics (i.e., fussiness, dullness, and attention seeking) among 6-month old offspring.…”

Predictors of father involvement : the role of early life events and stressors.

“…322, 333). Most current studies focus on mothers who suffered stressful events in childhood, who are found to be less sensitive, less available, less involved, and more hostile and intrusive (Davies, Slade, Wright, & Stewart, 2008;Kaitz, Levy, Ebstein, Faraone, & Mankuta, 2009;Lyons-Ruth & Block, 1996;Tees et al, 2010;Van et al, 2012). Little is known about fathers' experiences of early life stressors and how they relate to their involvement with their own children in later adulthood.…”