Effects of Genotype and Sleep on Temperament

Supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Income disparity in school readiness and the mediating role of perinatal maternal mental health: a longitudinal birth cohort study

10.1017/S204579602000102XEPIDEMIOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRIC SCIENCES3

Dissecting maternal care : Patterns of maternal parenting in a prospective cohort study

Parental care has a strong impact on neurodevelopment and mental health in the offspring. While a multitude of animal studies has revealed that the parental brain is a highly complex system involving many brain structures and neuroendocrine systems, human maternal parenting as a multi-dimensional construct with cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components has not been characterized comprehensively.This unique multi-method analysis aimed to examine patterns of self-reported and observed parenting from 6 to 60 months postpartum in a cohort of 496 mothers (maternal age: M = 32 years). Self-report questionnaires assessed motivational components of mothering, parenting stress, parenting-related mood, maternal investment, maternal parenting style, mother-child relationship satisfaction, and mother-child bonding at multiple time points. Observed parenting variables included the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scales at 6 and 18 months, the Behavioral Evaluation Strategies Taxonomies (BEST) at 6 months, an Etch-A-Sketch cooperation task (EAS) at 48 months and the Parent-Child Early Relationship Assessment (PCERA) at 60 months. To examine whether different latent constructs underlie these measures of maternal parenting, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis.Self-report measures of parenting correlated only weakly with behavioral observations. Factor analysis on a subsample (n = 197) revealed four latent factors that each explained 7 to 11% of the variance in the data (32% total variance explained). Based on the loadings of the instruments, the factors were interpreted as follows: Supportive Parenting, Self-Enjoyment Parenting, Overwhelmed Parenting, and Affectionate Parenting. These factor scores showed specific associations with maternal education and depressive symptoms, and with child outcomes, including maternally reported internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems, school readiness, and child-reported symptoms of mental health.These findings parallel the complexity of the parental brain, suggesting that maternal parenting consists of multiple components, each of which is associated with different maternal characteristics and child outcomes.publishe

Sleep and temperament in early childhood

Sleep and temperament represent key behaviours in early childhood that reflect underlying individual constitutional differences and influence each other, and many developmental processes over time. This chapter aims to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the early childhood temperament field including definitions, history, and measurement issues. An overview of the key findings in regards to early sleep behaviours and temperament interactions across the first five years of life is provided, and the important role of the parenting environment is briefly explained. While there remain a number of challenges to overcome in the field, two key areas are further developed here. Future work should aim to increase our understanding about why early sleep and temperament are linked, and about the mechanisms involved in transactional developmental systems involving sleep, temperament, genes, and the parenting environment. Multi-disciplinary and creative modelling approaches will be needed to advance the field which should seek to create translatable research findings for the early childhood health and education sectors. Research should contribute to identifying children at the highest risk of ongoing sleep and social-emotional adjustment problems, and address these with appropriately targeted prevention and intervention strategies that support parents, educators, and health practitioners in their roles

Intergenerational Transmission of Maternal Childhood Maltreatment Exposure: Implications for Fetal Brain Development

ObjectiveGrowing evidence suggests the deleterious consequences of exposure to childhood maltreatment (CM) not only might endure over the exposed individual's lifespan but also might be transmitted across generations. The time windows, mechanisms, and targets of such intergenerational transmission are poorly understood. The prevailing paradigm posits that mother-to-child transmission of the effects of maternal CM likely occurs after her child's birth. The authors seek to extend this paradigm and advance a transdisciplinary framework that integrates the concepts of biological embedding of life experiences and fetal origins of health and disease risk.MethodThe authors posit that the period of embryonic and fetal life represents a particularly sensitive time for intergenerational transmission; that the developing brain represents a target of particular interest; and that stress-sensitive maternal-placental-fetal biological (endocrine, immune) pathways represent leading candidate mechanisms of interest.ResultsThe plausibility of this model is supported by theoretical considerations and empirical findings in humans and animals. The authors synthesize several research areas and identify important knowledge gaps that might warrant further study.ConclusionThe scientific and public health relevance of this effort relates to achieving a better understanding of the "when," "what," and "how" of intergenerational transmission of CM, with implications for early identification of risk, prevention, and intervention