ArticleJournal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry2012
Maternal early life experiences and parenting: the mediating role of cortisol and executive function.
Article in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers.
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Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed, 142 citations in OpenAlex.
- Does maternal inhibitory control mediate effects of a parenting intervention on maternal sensitive discipline? Evidence from a randomized-controlled trial.Infant mental health journal · 2021Trial
- Mechanisms of change: Testing how preventative interventions impact psychological and physiological stress functioning in mothers in neglectful families.Development and psychopathology · 2015Trial
- Neurodevelopmental effects of early life stress: PFC and cognition.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- From childhood psychological maltreatment to fear of happiness: the parallel mediating roles of self-concept clarity and executive function.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Maternal cortisol and parenting in infants' first 6 months: The moderating role of family stress.Developmental psychology · 2026Article
- A lethal incident during an intergroup encounter in bonobos.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The role of prenatal stress and maternal trauma responses in predicting children's mental health during war.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- Weaving Invisible Threads: The Impact of Caregiver Trauma on Parenting and Child Brain Development.Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Examining the relationship between psychosocial adversity and inhibitory control: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of children growing up in extreme poverty.Journal of experimental child psychology · 2025Article
- Maternal cortisol concentration is associated with reduced brain activation to infant cry and more intrusive parenting behavior.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- The effect of maternal childhood maltreatment on postpartum mother-child bonding and maternal hair glucocorticoids.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2024Article
- Maternal Childhood Maltreatment History and Child Behavior Problems: Developmental Patterns and Mediation via Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Parenting Behavior.Child maltreatment · 2023Article
- Hormonal and behavioral responses to an infant simulator in women with and without children.Developmental psychobiology · 2022Article
- Parenting behaviors of mothers with posttraumatic stress: The roles of cortisol reactivity and negative emotion.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2022Article
- Child maltreatment affects fathers' response to infant crying, not mediated by cortisol or testosterone.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
- A biopsychosocial perspective on maternal parenting in the first two years of infant life.Behavioural brain research · 2021Article
- The role of interindividual licking received and dopamine genotype on later-life licking provisioning in female rat offspring.Brain and behavior · 2021Article
- Adverse and Protective Childhood Experiences and Parenting Attitudes: the Role of Cumulative Protection in Understanding Resilience.Adversity and resilience science · 2021Article
- Adverse childhood experiences among early care and education teachers: Prevalence and associations with observed quality of classroom social and emotional climate.Children and youth services review · 2020Article
- Once and Again : History of Rearing Experiences and Psychosocial Parenting Resources at Six Months in Primiparous Mothers.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2019Article
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4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveResearch suggests that early life adversity may affect subsequent parenting. Animal studies investigating mechanisms of transmission have focused on biological factors; whereas research in humans has emphasized cognitive and psychosocial factors. We hypothesized that neuropsychological and physiological factors would act as mediators between maternal retrospective reports of early life experiences (ELE) and current parenting.
methodWe recruited a community sample of 89 mothers and their infants (2-6 months of age). Maternal ELE consisted of self-reports of consistency of care and childhood maltreatment. Diurnal salivary cortisol samples were collected as the measure of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function. Executive function measures included attentional set-shifting and spatial working memory. Maternal sensitivity was assessed through videotapes of mothers interacting with their infants.
resultsA series of path analyses indicated that maternal ELE was indirectly related to maternal sensitivity via two pathways: one through HPA function, and the other through HPA function and spatial working memory. There was no direct path between maternal ELE and parenting.
conclusionThese findings provide support for the notion that mediators linking early life experiences to parenting in humans may be similar to physiological mechanisms found in animal models. As maternal care is associated with numerous infant outcomes, our findings may have broad relevance to understanding the risk associated with parenting and adverse outcomes in infants. A greater understanding of mechanism is important to informing interventions targeted at disrupting maladaptive trajectories of parenting.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.