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| Research article summary (published 30 Jul 2002): |
Attunement of maternal and child adrenocortical response to child challenge.
Full Abstract
Although a great deal is known about physiological responding to stress in nonhuman animals, and also about individual differences in behavioral attunement in humans, physiological attunement between human mothers and their children has never been studied. The current study examined attunement in adrenocortical response between mother and child in the context of the child's exposure to a novel and potentially challenging task. Children ranging in age from two to four years of age walked on a balance beam for the first time while mothers watched on a monitor from the next room. Saliva samples were collected from both mothers and children before and 30 minutes following the beam walk. Individual differences in behavioral attunement were assessed from a videotaped mother-child teaching task, and coded for maternal sensitivity. We expected that mothers rated as highly sensitive would show better physiological attunement with their children's adrenocortical response to the balance beam walk than less sensitive mothers. We did not expect that all children would show a cortisol elevation in response to the task. Rather, we were interested in the degree to which mothers "matched" children's adrenocortical fluctuations, regardless of elevations or decreases in cortisol. Results supported the hypothesis. In the highly sensitive group, mothers' and children's adrenocortical responses to the child beam walk were significantly correlated, and in the less sensitive group the responses were not significantly related. Findings suggest that physiological attunement may co-occur with behavioral sensitivity in normal mother-child relationships.
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Author information
Author/s: Sethre-Hofstad, Lisa (L); Stansbury, Kathy (K); Rice, Margaret A (MA);
Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Concordia College, 901 S. 8th Street, Moorhead, MN 56562, USA. sethre@cord.edu
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: Psychoneuroendocrinology (Psychoneuroendocrinology), published in England. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Aug; vol 27 (issue 6) : pp 731-47
Dates: Created 2002/06/26; Completed 2002/08/30; Revised 2006/11/15;
PMID: 12084665, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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