ArticleChild abuse & neglect2023
Threat versus deprivation in mother's childhood: Differential relations to hair cortisol and psychopathology in pregnancy.
Article in Child abuse & neglect, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of associations between hormone levels in hair and peripartum depression.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Pooled it
- Linking maternal childhood maltreatment to health-related and psychosocial risk factors during pregnancy: intergenerational implications for early child development.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Sex-Specific Effects of Early-Life Unpredictability on Hippocampal and Amygdala Responses to Novelty in Adolescents.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Is neglect the first form of threat?Attachment & human development · 2025Review
- Maternal Childhood Trauma and Offspring Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Function from Infancy to 6 Years of Age.Developmental psychobiology · 2025Article
- Associations Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Prenatal Mental Health in the French EDEN Cohort: Cumulative, Person-Centered, and Dimensional Approaches.Depression and anxiety · 2025Article
- The effect of maternal childhood maltreatment on postpartum mother-child bonding and maternal hair glucocorticoids.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2024Article
- Recalibration of the stress response system over adult development: Is there a perinatal recalibration period?Development and psychopathology · 2023Review
- Correlates of preconception and pregnancy hair cortisol concentrations.Research square · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe negative effects of childhood maltreatment can be intergenerational, and the prenatal period may play an important role in this intergenerational transmission. Maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction and maternal psychopathology represent two mechanisms through which the effects of childhood maltreatment are hypothesized to be transmitted across generations.
objectiveThis study first sought to extend prior research on pathways of intergenerational transmission by examining whether mothers' childhood experiences of abuse versus neglect differentially relate to maternal HPA activity and to maternal psychopathology during the prenatal period. Second, exploratory analyses examined the links between maternal variables and their State Protective Service involvement as a parent, as an indicator of maladaptive caregiving.
methodsDuring the third trimester of pregnancy, 51 women reported on experiences of childhood maltreatment, on State Protective Service involvement as an adult parent, and on current depressive and post-traumatic stress symptoms, and provided a hair sample for cortisol assay.
resultsRegression analyses indicated that greater severity of abuse, but not neglect, in childhood was associated with higher maternal depressive symptoms (β = 0.488, p = .020). In contrast, greater severity of neglect, but not abuse, in mothers' childhood was associated with lower maternal hair cortisol concentration (β = -0.437, p = .031). Lower maternal hair cortisol concentration, but not maternal psychopathology or severity of childhood abuse or neglect, in turn, was associated with State Protective Service involvement (β = -0.785, p < .001).
conclusionsFindings extend prior work by suggesting that childhood abuse and neglect may have different sequelae for mothers during pregnancy and that these sequelae may have different relations to parenting.
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