Abstract
Background: Maternal behavior and infant 5-HTTLPR polymorphism have been linked to infants' social stress reactivity and recovery at different ages. Nonetheless, Gene × Environment (G × E) studies focusing on early infancy are rare and have led to mixed results.
Aim: To investigate the contribution of maternal social engagement and infants' 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in
predicting infants' negative emotionality in response to a social stressor, namely maternal unresponsiveness.
Study design: Cross-sectional, G × E study.
Subjects: 73 4-month-old infants and their mothers took part to the Face-to-Face Still-Face (FFSF) procedure.
Outcomemeasures: A micro-analytical coding of negative emotionality was adopted to measure infants' reactivity to social stress (Still-Face episode) and infants' recovery after social stress (Reunion episode). Maternal contribution was measured as maternal social engagement during the Play episode. Infantswere genotyped as S-carriers or L-homozygotes.
Results: The interplay between maternal social engagement and infants' genotype was found to be predictive of infants' negative emotionality during both Still-Face and Reunion episodes of the FFSF paradigm. The interaction highlighted that maternal social engagement predicted minor negative emotionality during Still-Face and Reunion episodes for S-carrier infants, but not for L-homozygotes.
Conclusions: Findings extend previous results on adults and children, highlighting that maternal behavior
might be a protective factor for stress reactivity and regulation, especially for S-carrier infants who are at risk
for heightened stress susceptibility.
Lingua originale | English |
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pagine (da-a) | 173-179 |
Numero di pagine | 7 |
Rivista | Early Human Development |
DOI | |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2015 |
Keywords
- 5-HTTLPR
- G x E Study
- Mother-infant interaction
- Serotonin transporter gene
- Social stress
- Still-Face paradigm