AI Article Synopsis
- Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) negatively impact women's ability to adapt to parenthood, but how this happens is not fully understood.
- A study of 193 first-time mothers examined how their autonomic nervous system responses (like heart rate changes) during a baby cry test related to their ACEs and later parenting outcomes.
- The findings suggest that high ACEs are linked to lower parasympathetic reactivity, which could lead to increased depressive symptoms post-birth, highlighting the role of childhood trauma in shaping emotional responses to parenting.
Article Abstract
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have an impact on women's adaptation to parenthood, but mechanisms are poorly understood. Autonomic nervous system reactivity was tested as a potential mediating mechanism in a sample of 193 at-risk primiparous women. ACEs were measured retrospectively during pregnancy. A baby cry-response task was administered during pregnancy while indicators of sympathetic reactivity (pre-ejection period; PEP) and parasympathetic reactivity (respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) were recorded. Parenting self-efficacy, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were measured during pregnancy and 1 year after giving birth. Harsh discipline was measured 2 years after giving birth. Structural equation modeling was employed to test whether baseline PEP and RSA and reactivity mediated links between ACEs and postnatal outcomes, adjusted for prenatal variables. High ACEs predicted less RSA reactivity (p = .02), which subsequently predicted increases in depressive symptoms (p = .03). The indirect effect was not significant (p = .06). There was no indirect link between high ACEs and harsh parenting through PEP nor RSA (n = 98). The parasympathetic nervous system may be involved in negative affective responses in the transition to parenthood among women exposed to childhood trauma.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0954579418001591 | DOI Listing |
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