The effect of maternal childhood maltreatment on postpartum mother-child bonding and maternal hair glucocorticoids

Background: Maternal experiences of childhood maltreatment (CM) constitute a risk factor for impairments in the mother-child relationship. One mechanism underlying this intergenerational transmission may be maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis dysregulation. Yet, few studies have examined different maltreatment subtypes, including emotional neglect, considered concurrent depressive symptoms, and used long-term integrated glucocorticoid measures.Objective: This study aimed to investigate associations between maternal CM history, postpartum glucocorticoids in hair, and mother-child bonding. In exploratory analyses, we tested whether specific subtypes of CM had differential implications for glucocorticoid secretion and bonding.Methods: During pregnancy, N = 269 mothers from the prospective cohort study DREAMHAIR provided retrospective information on CM and current information regarding psychological and hair-related variables. Hair samples were collected 8 weeks after delivery for quantification of maternal long-term hair cortisol and cortisone concentrations in 2-cm scalp-near hair samples. Mother-child bonding was measured 8 weeks and 14 months after birth using the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire.Results: While bivariate correlations revealed significant associations of CM with bonding and hair cortisol, regression findings showed CM was associated with impaired bonding 8 weeks (overall CM trend-level; emotional neglect p = .038) and 14 months (emotional neglect trend level p = .041) after birth, however not after controlling for depressive symptoms at the time point of the outcome. In regression analyses, CM was not associated with maternal hair glucocorticoids 8 weeks postpartum. Maternal hair glucocorticoid concentrations were not related to mother-child bonding and did not mediate associations between CM and mother-child bonding.Conclusion: Data tentatively suggest that mothers with CM experiences, in particular emotional neglect, may be at risk for suboptimal bonding to their child, however current depressive symptoms seem to be more important. Our data provide no evidence for a crucial role of glucocorticoid secretion, yet aetiological processes of long-term glucocorticoid secretion and bonding are complex and more severely affected samples should be examined. Maternal childhood maltreatment experiences, in particular emotional neglect, were associated with impaired mother-child bonding postpartum, however not after considering current depressive symptoms.While maternal childhood maltreatment correlated with maternal hair cortisol 8 weeks postpartum, this was not confirmed in regression analyses controlling for relevant confounders.Maternal hair glucocorticoid concentrations were not associated with impaired mother-child bonding. Antecedentes: Las experiencias maternas de maltrato infantil (MI) constituyen un factor de riesgo para deterioro en la relacion madre-hijo. Un mecanismo subyacente a esta transmision intergeneracional puede ser la desregulacion del eje hipotalamo-hipofisis-adrenal. Sin embargo, pocos estudios han examinado los diferentes subtipos de maltrato, incluido negligencia emocional, han considerado sintomas depresivos concurrentes y han utilizado mediciones integradas de glucocorticoides a largo plazo.Objetivo: Este estudio tuvo como objetivo investigar las asociaciones entre los antecedentes maternos de MI, glucocorticoides de cabello en el postparto y el vinculo madre-hijo. En el analisis exploratorio, probamos si subtipos especificos de MI tenian implicancias diferenciales para la secrecion de glucocorticoides y el vinculo.Metodos: Durante el embarazo, N = 269 madres del estudio de cohorte prospectivo DREAMHAR proporcionaron informacion retrospectiva en MI e informacion actual sobre variables psicologicas y capilares. Se recolectaron muestras de cabello 8 semanas despues del parto para cuantificar las concentraciones de cortisol y cortisona de cabello a largo plazo en muestras de 2 cms de cabello cercano al cuero cabelludo. El vinculo madre-hijo se midio a las 8 semanas y 14 meses despues del nacimiento utilizando el Cuestionario de Vinculo del Postparto.Resultados: Si bien las correlaciones bivariadas revelaron asociaciones significativas del MI con el vinculo y cortisol capilar, los hallazgos de regresion mostraron que el MI se asocio con una alteracion del vinculo a las 8 semanas (nivel de tendencia general del MI; negligencia emocional p = .038) y a los 14 meses (negligencia emocional p = .041) despues del nacimiento, sin embargo, no despues de controlar los sintomas depresivos en el momento del resultado. En los analisis de regresion, el MI no se asocio con glucocorticoides del cabello materno a las 8 semanas postparto. Las concentraciones de glucocorticoides en el cabello materno no se relacionaron con el vinculo madre-hijo y no mediaron asociaciones entre el MI y el vinculo madre-hijo.Conclusion: Estos datos sugieren tentativamente que madres con experiencias de MI, en particular negligencia emocional, pueden estar en riesgo de tener un vinculo suboptimo con su hijo; sin embargo, los sintomas depresivos actuales parecen ser mas importantes. Nuestros datos no proporcionan evidencia de un papel crucial de la secrecion de glucocorticoides, sin embargo, los procesos etiologicos de la secrecion de glucocorticoides a largo plazo y el vinculo son complejos y se deben examinar en muestras mas gravemente afectadas.