Inter-Parental Conflict, Maternal Behavior, and Mother-Child Physiology

描述（由申请人提供）：母亲在促进儿童生物行为调节的发展中起着关键作用。然而，婚姻冲突与许多消极的育儿行为有关，婚姻冲突对育儿行为的影响被认为是导致儿童适应不良的关键机制。尽管有强有力的证据表明，婚姻伴侣之间的冲突和敌意会溢出影响育儿行为，但解释二元家庭关系之间情绪和情绪转移的机制仍然知之甚少。然而，理论和经验框架表明，婚姻冲突是一个主要的压力源，并负责压力反应生理系统的变化。到目前为止，还没有研究将婚姻压力生理学作为一种机制，通过这种机制，婚姻冲突阻碍了孩子在面对挑战时的行为和生理调节能力。这项拟议的研究旨在通过检查婚姻冲突引起的母亲压力生理在多大程度上降低了母亲在痛苦中对婴儿做出敏感反应的能力，来填补这一知识空白。然后，我们将通过检查婴儿的生理反应和从母亲的支持中恢复的程度来解决对婴儿的影响。参与者将包括150名已婚父母和他们大约6个月大的亲生孩子。使用随机对照设计，我们将分配夫妇进行冲突讨论（N=75）或无冲突讨论（N=75），然后进行母婴自由游戏。在自由游戏之后，母亲将被要求安抚她痛苦的婴儿（婴儿将经历一个标准化的实验室程序，旨在引起痛苦）。在讨论婚姻时采集母亲的4份唾液样本，在窘迫任务时采集婴儿的4份唾液样本。随后将对样本进行皮质醇和唾液α淀粉酶的检测，这是应激反应心理生物学的两个主要组成部分（分别是下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴和自主神经系统）的标志物。我们将首先检查是否婚姻冲突引起的应激生理是负责降低敏感性产妇照顾。然后，我们将通过检查婴儿对母亲支持挑战的生理反应和恢复来检查母亲压力生理学是否是一种将母亲压力传递给婴儿的机制。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mothers play a critical role in facilitating the development of biobehavioral regulation in the child. However, marital conflict is related to a host of negative parenting practices, and marital conflict's effect on parenting behavior is thought to be a key mechanism leading to child maladjustment. Despite strong evidence that conflict and hostility between marital partners spillsover to effect parenting behaviors, mechanisms explaining how affect and mood transfers between dyadic familial relationships remains poorly understood. However, theoretical and empirical frameworks suggest marital conflict to be a major stressor, and responsible for changes in stress responsive physiological systems. To date, no study has examined marital stress physiology as a mechanism by which marital conflict impedes the ability for a child to behaviorally and physiological regulate in the face of challenge. The proposed study aims to fill this knowledge gap by examining the extent to which marital conflict induced maternal stress physiology reduces a mother's ability to respond sensitively to her infant during distress. We will then address the implications for the infant, by examining the degree to which the infant physiologically reacts and recovers from distress with maternal support. Participants will include 150 married parents living with their biological child approximately 6 months of age. Using a randomized controlled design, we will assign couples to engage in either a conflict discussion (N= 75) or a non-conflict discussion (N=75) before engaging in a mother-infant freeplay. After the freeplay, the mother will be asked to soothe her distressed infant (the infant will undergo a standardized laboratory procedure designed to elicit distress). Four saliva samples will be collected from the mother surrounding the marital discussion and four samples will be collected from the infant surrounding the distress task. Samples will later be assayed for cortisol and salivary alpha amylase, markers of the two major components of the psychobiology of the stress response (the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system, respectively). We will first examine if marital conflict induced stress physiology is responsible for reduced sensitivity in maternal caretaking. We will then examine if maternal stress physiology is a mechanism by which maternal stress is transmitted to her infant by examining infant physiological reactivity and recovery to challenge with maternal support. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed study aims to identify the physiological mechanisms by which marital conflict spills over into parenting behaviors and effects infant regulation. Specifically, we will be examining the effects of physiological reactivity surrounding marital conflict on maternal behavior and the infant's physiological reaction to, and ability to recover from distress with maternal support. The identification of physiological mechanisms is relevant because their discovery will provide a deeper understanding of the causes of maternal behavior and the implications for the development of child regulation, and provide the basis for new targets of family-based interventions.