Transmission of Mother-Infant Stress Communication

Completed

• Conditions: Stress

• Registration Number: NCT02013401
• Lead Sponsor: University of Massachusetts, Boston

Brief Summary

The central aim of this study is to assess mother-infant communication via behavioral, physiological, and affective indices under conditions where distal stressors may not be directly detectable by the infant.

Detailed Description

This investigation examines a distal maternal stressor on the quality of interaction in mother-infant dyadic communication. Assessments include behavioral, physiological, and affective indices under conditions where distal stressors may not be directly detectable by the infant. The present research examines mother-infant interactions to test the hypothesis of whether maternal stress may be transduced to their infants via multiple pathways. The secondary aim is to explore effective emotion regulation strategies for the mother as potential buffers to stress and additionally reducing early life stress effects on the infant's regulatory development.

While the emotion regulation literature posits that reappraisal may be associated with decreased in physiological and psychological stress, this type of regulation strategy may be ineffective when interfacing with discrimination. The regulation strategy needs to be titrated to the stressor in order to be effective. These findings will have notable social, clinical, and psychological significance,

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2013-10
• Study First Submitted: 2013-12-11
• Study First Submitted QC: 2013-12-11
• Study First Posted: 2013-12-17
• Primary Completion: 2016-07-14
• Study Completion: 2016-07-14
• Status Verified: 2018-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2018-10-17
• Last Update Posted: 2018-10-18

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 56

Inclusion Criteria

• Healthy volunteers

Exclusion Criteria

• No presence of heart murmur or wear a pacemaker
• No medication for hypertensive or cardiovascular disease
• Not using beta blockers

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Salivary Cortisol	One lab appointment for approximately 80 minutes.	Salivary cortisol is a measure that indicates hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity. The study obtains 4 assessments with 20 minutes between each assessment. Participants chew on a cotton role for 2-minutes which is placed in a cortisol salivette tube (Sarstedt)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Salivary Amylase	One lab appointment for approximately 80 minutes.	Salivary amylase is an indicator of sympathetic nervous system activity. The same salivary salivette is used to later extract the amylase.

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

University of Mass. Boston; 🇺🇸 Boston, Massachusetts, United States

University of Massachusetts, Boston, Child Development Unit; 🇺🇸 Boston, Massachusetts, United States