Intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation: Part II. Developmental origins of newborn neurobehavior

Abstract

We investigated whether neurobehavioral markers of risk for emotion dysregulation were evident among newborns, as well as whether the identified markers were associated with prenatal exposure to maternal emotion dysregulation. Pregnant women (N = 162) reported on their emotion dysregulation prior to a laboratory assessment. The women were then invited to the laboratory to assess baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA in response to an infant cry. Newborns were assessed after birth via the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale. We identified two newborn neurobehavioral factors—arousal and attention—via exploratory factor analysis. Low arousal was characterized by less irritability, excitability, and motor agitation, while low attention was related to a lower threshold for auditory and visual stimulation, less sustained attention, and poorer visual tracking abilities. Pregnant women who reported higher levels of emotion dysregulation had newborns with low arousal levels and less attention. Larger decreases in maternal RSA in response to cry were also related to lower newborn arousal. We provide the first evidence that a woman’s emotion dysregulation while pregnant is associated with risks for dysregulation in her newborn. Implications for intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation are discussed.

Intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation: Part I. Psychopathology, self-injury, and parasympathetic responsivity among pregnant women

“…However, this work has likewise been hampered by extant, categorical approaches to characterizing stress and distress. Examination of the extent to which psychological and physiological emotion dysregulation observed in the current study may contribute to fetal outcomes, as discussed in Ostlund et al (2019 [this issue]), will be critical for advancing the next generation of research on the developmental origins of health and disease.…”

Prenatal maternal hair cortisol concentrations are related to maternal prenatal emotion dysregulation but not neurodevelopmental or birth outcomes

“…They completed tasks designed to elicit an autonomic nervous system response to stress, completed additional questionnaires, and underwent prenatal stress and psychiatric interviews (see Lin et al, for a more complete description of our prenatal protocol). Between 24 hr and 2 months after birth trained graduate research assistants or clinicians completed the newborn neurobehavioral exam ( M = 3.8 days, Mdn = 1.0 days, SD = 8.3 days, range = 1–59 days; see Ostlund et al, for more complete descriptions of our birth protocol). Below we describe the measures specific to this manuscript.…”

“…The NNNS includes 13 summary scales evaluating attention, self‐regulation, amount of handling, habituation, stress signs, arousal, excitability, lethargy, nonoptimal reflexes, asymmetrical reflexes, hyper and hypotonicity, and quality of movement in the newborn. Our NNNS assessment and procedures are described in detail in Ostlund et al (). Two factor scores, attention and arousal , were derived in this sample and used in this study.…”

“…In other words, transdiagnostic markers of psychopathology, ones that capture the full range of comorbidities women may experience during pregnancy, are needed to better understand whether prenatal psychological functioning is related to hair cortisol concentrations. We propose that a strong marker of prenatal distress during pregnancy may be emotion dysregulation, a transdiagnostic vulnerability factor for psychopathology (Beauchaine, ; Crowell, Puzia, & Yaptangco, ; Lin et al, ; Ostlund et al, ).…”

Revisiting parent–child interactions in early childhood as relevant factor in the development of ADHD

“…Goodness of fit between parent and child characteristics is, therefore, a critical factor in the context of ADHD risk [9], and is at the same time harder to accomplish given that the ED problems run in these families. A recent study shows that already during pregnancy, poor maternal emotion regulation is predictive of ED in newborns [15]. Persistence thereof may pave the way to increasingly poor self-control (i.e., the capacity to override automatic responses through controlled processing) relevant when entering primary school.…”