Maternal Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Neural Function During Volitional Emotion Regulation, and Parenting
Publication Date
6-7-2022
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Emotion regulation, Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Parenting, Maternal behavior, Socioeconomic status
Abstract
The transition to becoming a mother involves numerous emotional challenges, and the ability to effectively keep negative emotions in check is critical for parenting. Evidence suggests that experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage interferes with parenting adaptations and alters neural processes related to emotion regulation. The present study examined whether socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with diminished neural activation while mothers engaged in volitional (i.e., purposeful) emotion regulation. 59 mothers, at an average of 4 months postpartum, underwent fMRI scanning and completed the Emotion Regulation Task (ERT). When asked to regulate emotions using reappraisal (i.e., Reappraise condition; reframing stimuli in order to decrease negative emotion), mothers with lower income-to-needs ratio exhibited dampened neural activation in the dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC, middle frontal and middle temporal gyrus, and caudate. Without explicit instructions to down-regulate (i.e., Maintain condition), mothers experiencing lower income also exhibited dampened response in regulatory areas, including the middle frontal and middle temporal gyrus and caudate. Blunted middle frontal gyrus activation across both Reappraise and Maintain conditions was associated with reduced maternal sensitivity during a mother-child interaction task. Results of the present study demonstrate the influence of socioeconomic disadvantage on prefrontal engagement during emotion regulation, which may have downstream consequences for maternal behaviors.
Copyright Date
6-7-2022
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Rights Holder
Informa UK Limited
Provenance
Received from author
Language
English (eng)
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by Informa UK Limited. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:
Capistrano, C. G., Grande, L. A., McRae, K., Phan, K. L., & Kim, P. (2022). Maternal socioeconomic disadvantage, neural function during volitional emotion regulation, and parenting. Social Neuroscience, 17(3), 276-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2022.2082521
Accepted Manuscript is openly available through the "Link to Full Text" button.
The published Version of Record is available at libraries through Compass or Worldcat.
Publication Title
Social Neuroscience
Volume
17(3)
First Page
276
Last Page
292
ISSN
1747-0927
PubMed ID
35620995
Recommended Citation
Capistrano, C. G., Grande, L. A., McRae, K., Phan, K. L., & Kim, P. (2022). Maternal socioeconomic disadvantage, neural function during volitional emotion regulation, and parenting. Social Neuroscience, 17(3), 276-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2022.2082521