ArticleDevelopmental psychobiology2021
White matter integrity moderates the relation between experienced childhood maltreatment and fathers' behavioral response to infant crying.
Article in Developmental psychobiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Early life adversity and white matter microstructural organization-a systematic review.Brain imaging and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Risky family environment, white matter organization, and effective parenting in expectant fathers.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Brain White Matter Alterations in Young Adults with Childhood Emotional Neglect Experience.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Diffusion tensor imaging of white-matter structural features of maltreating mothers and their associations with intergenerational chain of childhood abuse.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Early life adversity and males: Biology, behavior, and implications for fathers' parenting.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Review
- The Neural Basis of Human Fatherhood: A Unique Biocultural Perspective on Plasticity of Brain and Behavior.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2022Review
- Child maltreatment affects fathers' response to infant crying, not mediated by cortisol or testosterone.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
- White matter integrity moderates the relation between experienced childhood maltreatment and fathers' behavioral response to infant crying.Developmental psychobiology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The ability to provide appropriate responses to infant distress is vital to paternal care, but may be affected by fathers' experiences of childhood maltreatment. Detrimental effects of childhood maltreatment have been found in the adult brain's white matter fibers, accompanied with impaired emotional and cognitive functioning. In the current study (N = 121), we examined new and expectant fathers' childhood maltreatment experiences (i.e. emotional and physical abuse and neglect), current behavioral responses (i.e. handgrip force) to infant cry sounds, and white matter integrity using diffusion tensor imaging. First, more exposure to childhood maltreatment was associated with more use of excessive handgrip force in response to infant crying by fathers. Second, the association between experienced childhood maltreatment and white matter integrity was not significant in whole-brain analyses. Lastly, we found that the association between maltreatment exposure and excessive handgrip force during infant crying was absent in fathers with high tract integrity in the bilateral uncinate fasciculus. These findings possibly point to insufficient behavioral inhibition or emotional dysregulation in fathers who experienced childhood maltreatment, but buffering for this effect in those with larger integrity in brain fibers connecting the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.
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