Intimate partner violence and early mother-child bonding

母爱纽带是母亲和孩子之间最早的情感联系。当

Maternal bonding is the earliest emotional connection between a mother and her child. When this bond is damaged, there are adverse effects on the mother-child relationship and devastating consequences for the child’s physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional health. Although numerous psychosocial factors have been associated with poor bonding, very little is known about the process by which bonding goes awry. In addition, although research has focused mainly on factors influencing mother-infant bonding after birth, there is strong evidence that mother-infant bonding begins during pregnancy and shows moderate stability through toddlerhood. The purpose of this RO3 project is to test a novel prenatal model of bonding that explicates the association among maternal and fetal biomarkers (ANS/fetal movement), prenatal bonding behaviors, and maternal cognitions about the fetus in mediating the relationship between ANS/fetal movement and bonding behaviors. Importantly, the model proposes mechanisms by which the maternal-fetal bond can become impaired when women experience intimate partner violence (IPV). We will assess 200 participants from our ongoing NICHD- funded RO1 grant, which is exploring the effects of IPV stress during pregnancy and early infancy on a variety of other maternal and infant outcomes. We will begin to test our model during the existing RO1’s third trimester assessment. To do this, we will add assessments of maternal autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity (heart rate and vagal tone) associated with fetal movement, self-reported measures of maternal attributions about the fetus, and observed and self-report prenatal bonding behaviors. We will then add an additional one-month post-birth assessment to determine the process by which the maternal-fetal bond during pregnancy can affect the maternal-infant bond. Knowledge gleaned from this research will be crucial in developing interventions to influence maternal prenatal cognitions about the fetus as a strategy to prevent the devastating effects of problematic maternal-fetal and (later) maternal-infant bonding.