2016 — 2021 |
Bogat, G Anne Levendosky, Alytia A [⬀] Lonstein, Joseph S (co-PI) [⬀] |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Timing of Prenatal Stress and Infant Regulatory Functioning @ Michigan State University
PROJECT SUMMARY As society seeks to understand the etiology of human emotional and behavioral disorders, increasing attention must focus on the earliest determinants of vulnerability to these disorders, including those existing during prenatal life. Maternal stress during pregnancy contributes to this vulnerability by derailing many aspects of fetal development, including those underlying the infant's later physiological and behavioral responses to stress. Dysregulation of these stress-coping systems is known to put infants at tremendous risk for later emotional and behavioral problems. What remains virtually unknown, however, is how the differential timing of prenatal stress affects the degree of impairment in infants' biobehavioral regulation to stress. In the first longitudinal prospective study of its kind, we propose to use unprecedented high-frequency sampling to measure the occurrence of a common major stressor in a cohort of 335 women starting as early as week 15 of pregnancy, and then determine precisely when during pregnancy (early, mid, late) the stress exposure had the greatest impact on their 6-month-old infants' physiological responses to stress (i.e., hypothalamic-pituitary axis and sympathetic nervous system reactivity) and their behavioral responses to stress. The prenatal stressor we will use as a model is intimate partner violence (IPV). IPV is ideal to study for this purpose because, unlike many stressors studied in previous research on prenatal stress, IPV is an extremely common stressor experienced by pregnant women and its timing during pregnancy can be very precisely assessed. Furthermore, women can experience IPV during pregnancy, postpartum, or both. Therefore, in addition to determining the critical periods during fetal life when exposure to this major stressor is particularly detrimental to later infant stress responsivity, we can determine how those effects compare with postnatal exposure to the same stressor. Based on knowledge about the developmental milestones for the neural substrates involved in the physiological and behavioral responses to stress, we hypothesize in Aim 1 that early gestation stress will have the greatest effects on infant SNS stress responsivity, but that mid-gestation stress will have the greatest effects on infant HPA-axis responsivity and their behavioral responses to stress. In Aim 2 we will examine the maternal HPA axis and SNS functioning during her pregnancy as a mediator of the effects of prenatal IPV on later infant stress responsivity. Knowledge about the sensitive periods to stress that exist within prenatal life will have profound implications for pinpointing the cellular and molecular mechanisms that are derailed in the fetus and responsible for the negative outcomes seen after birth. This knowledge will also greatly inform strategies for prevention and intervention that will help avoid the negative effects of stress during this exquisitely sensitive period for human psychological and behavioral development and, thus, improve the lives of millions of women and their infants.
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1.009 |
2018 — 2021 |
Bogat, G Anne Levendosky, Alytia A (co-PI) [⬀] Lonstein, Joseph S (co-PI) [⬀] |
R03Activity Code Description: To provide research support specifically limited in time and amount for studies in categorical program areas. Small grants provide flexibility for initiating studies which are generally for preliminary short-term projects and are non-renewable. |
Intimate Partner Violence and Early Mother-Child Bonding @ Michigan State University
Maternal bonding is the earliest emotional connection between a mother and her child. When this bond is damaged, there are adverse effects on the mother-child relationship and devastating consequences for the child's physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional health. Although numerous psychosocial factors have been associated with poor bonding, very little is known about the process by which bonding goes awry. In addition, although research has focused mainly on factors influencing mother-infant bonding after birth, there is strong evidence that mother-infant bonding begins during pregnancy and shows moderate stability through toddlerhood. The purpose of this RO3 project is to test a novel prenatal model of bonding that explicates the association among maternal and fetal biomarkers (ANS/fetal movement), prenatal bonding behaviors, and maternal cognitions about the fetus in mediating the relationship between ANS/fetal movement and bonding behaviors. Importantly, the model proposes mechanisms by which the maternal-fetal bond can become impaired when women experience intimate partner violence (IPV). We will assess 200 participants from our ongoing NICHD- funded RO1 grant, which is exploring the effects of IPV stress during pregnancy and early infancy on a variety of other maternal and infant outcomes. We will begin to test our model during the existing RO1's third trimester assessment. To do this, we will add assessments of maternal autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity (heart rate and vagal tone) associated with fetal movement, self-reported measures of maternal attributions about the fetus, and observed and self-report prenatal bonding behaviors. We will then add an additional one-month post-birth assessment to determine the process by which the maternal-fetal bond during pregnancy can affect the maternal-infant bond. Knowledge gleaned from this research will be crucial in developing interventions to influence maternal prenatal cognitions about the fetus as a strategy to prevent the devastating effects of problematic maternal-fetal and (later) maternal-infant bonding.
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1.009 |
2020 — 2021 |
Bogat, G Anne Levendosky, Alytia A [⬀] Muzik, Maria |
R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Timing of Prenatal Stress and Early Markers of Child Psychopathology @ Michigan State University
PROJECT SUMMARY Psychopathology is a very serious public health burden that not only affects adults, but also many children and adolescents. To better understand this devastating problem, the scientific community has focused its efforts on pinpointing the earliest developmental origins of psychopathology. A considerable literature now implicates prenatal stress as a critical determinant of poor psychological functioning in childhood and beyond. However, knowledge about whether the timing of prenatal stress differentially influences the development of child psychopathology is virtually unknown. Gaining such knowledge is the long-term goal of our research. This proposed project ?piggybacks? on our current RO1-funded project (NICHD grant # R01HD085990) that is following a cohort of 335 women oversampled for life stress, with data collection starting at pregnancy week 15 until 6 months postpartum. We are conducting a granular assessment of pregnancy stress (measured weekly by maternal report) with the goal of understanding critical periods during fetal life when stress derails later infant behavioral and physiological stress responsivity. The overall objective of this new RO1 project is to follow this cohort into the child's preschool years. Specifically, in Aim 1 we will determine how the differential timing of prenatal stress influences behavior problems and psychopathology measured at age 4, how differences in self-regulation (an important precursor of mental health functioning) mediates the relationship between prenatal stress and psychopathology at age 4, and how these relationships differ between boys and girls. Aim 2 will test a host of postnatal risk factors (e.g., poor maternal mental health, poverty, intimate partner violence) and resilience factors (e.g., sensitive parenting, coping skills) as moderators of the effects of timing of prenatal stress on behavior problems and psychopathology at age 4. Importantly and uniquely, postnatal stress (mother and child) is assessed also in a fine-grained manner by every 3 month assessments from age 6 mos to 4 years. Finally, in Aim 3 we will use an exploratory statistical approach, machine learning, to detect which relatively small epochs of stress in postnatal life (measured every 3 months) interact with small epochs of prenatal stress to maximally influence child behavior problems and psychopathology. This project is innovative in its highly multimethod approach (e.g., behavioral observation, salivary analytes, laboratory tasks), its granular assessment of chronic and episodic prenatal and postnatal stressors, and the novel statistical approaches used to determine which epochs of stress are most relevant for psychopathology. This highly significant research will be the first longitudinal, prospective, multi-method study of how differential timing of prenatal stress influences the development of psychopathology, as mediated by child self-regulation and moderated by postnatal environmental factors. Thus, this study is critical for understanding how early child development sets the stage for psychopathology and will lead to increased understanding of the developmental epochs to be targeted for preventative interventions.
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1.009 |