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Salivary α-Amylase Reactivity to Infant Crying in Maltreating Mothers

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Abstract

Deviant physiological reactivity to infant stimuli has been suggested to underlie maladaptive parenting behavior. Our study involved 44 maltreating and 42 non-maltreating mothers. During a standardized cry paradigm, mothers listened to nine cry sounds of varying pitches. Saliva was collected at baseline, after each cry sound, and after a recovery episode. Salivary α-amylase (sAA) as a marker of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity was assayed from saliva samples. Maltreating mothers showed lower overall sAA levels and an attenuated reactivity pattern to infant crying as compared to non-maltreating mothers. No effect of type of maltreatment (neglect only vs. neglect and abuse) was found. Furthermore, positive correlations between sAA and heart rate (HR) for non-maltreating mothers differed significantly from non-significant correlations between sAA and HR for maltreating mothers. This suggests anomalous asynchrony between different aspects of the ANS in maltreating mothers. Results indicate a lack of functional autonomic (re)activity as a contributing risk factor to child maltreatment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Jill Baars, Anke de Glopper, Renée Naalden, Angel Roseval, Renée Smulders, Eva van Wijck, and Marcella van Zuijdam for their assistance during various phases of this project. The study was supported by Yulius mental health clinic and by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (MHvIJ: NWO SPINOZA prize; MJBK: VICI grant).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Child and Family Studies, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9555, 2300 RB, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Sophie Reijman, Lenneke R. A. Alink, Laura H. C. G. Compier-de Block, Claudia D. Werner, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn & Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg

  2. Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Lenneke R. A. Alink, Laura H. C. G. Compier-de Block, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn & Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg

  3. Yulius Mental Health Clinic, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Athanasios Maras & Corine Rijnberk

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  1. Sophie Reijman
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  2. Lenneke R. A. Alink
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Correspondence to Lenneke R. A. Alink.

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Reijman, S., Alink, L.R.A., Compier-de Block, L.H.C.G. et al. Salivary α-Amylase Reactivity to Infant Crying in Maltreating Mothers. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 46, 589–599 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-014-0499-6

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