Publication Date
8-14-2019
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Predictability, Early adversity, Development, Cognition, Maternal care
Abstract
Background
Early life experiences have persisting influence on brain function throughout life. Maternal signals constitute a primary source of early life experiences, and their quantity and quality during sensitive developmental periods exert enduring effects on cognitive function and emotional and social behaviors. Here we examined if, in addition to established qualitative dimensions of maternal behavior during her interactions with her infant and child, patterns of maternal signals may contribute to the maturation of children's executive functions. We focused primarily on effortful control, a potent predictor of mental health outcomes later in life.
Methods
In two independent prospective cohorts in Turku, Finland (N = 135), and Irvine, CA, USA (N = 192) that differed significantly in race/ethnicity and sociodemographic parameters, we assessed whether infant exposure to unpredictable patterns of maternal-derived sensory signals portended poor effortful control.
Outcomes
In both the Irvine and Turku cohorts, unpredictable sequences of maternal behavior during infancy were associated with worse effortful control at one year of age. Longitudinal analyses demonstrated that this association persisted for as long as each cohort was assessed-until two years of age in the Turku cohort and to 9.5 years in the Irvine cohort. The relation of unpredictable maternal signals during infancy and the measures of executive function persisted after adjusting for covariates.
Interpretations
The consistency of our findings across two cohorts from different demographic backgrounds substantiated the finding that patterns, and specifically unpredictable sequences, of maternal behaviors may influence the development of executive functions which may be associated with vulnerability to subsequent psychopathology.
Copyright Date
7-27-2019
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by Authors. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published by Elsevier B.V. as:
Davis, E. P., Korja, R., Karlsson, L., Glynn, L. M., Sandman, C. A., Vegetabile, B., . . . Baram, T. Z. (2019). Across continents and demographics, unpredictable maternal signals are associated with children's cognitive function. EBioMedicine, 46, 256-263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.07.025
Rights Holder
Elysia Poggi Davis, Riikka Korja, Linnea Karlsson, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman, Brian Vegetabile, Eeva-Leena Kataja, Saara Nolvi, Eija Sinervä, Juho Pelto, Hasse Karlsson, Hal S. Stern, and Tallie Z. Baram
Provenance
Received from CHORUS
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
8 pgs
File Size
884 KB
Publication Title
EBioMedicine
Volume
46
First Page
256
Last Page
263
ISSN
2352-3964
Recommended Citation
Davis, E. P., Korja, R., Karlsson, L., Glynn, L. M., Sandman, C. A., Vegetabile, B., . . . Baram, T. Z. (2019). Across continents and demographics, unpredictable maternal signals are associated with children's cognitive function. EBioMedicine, 46, 256-263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.07.025