Perceived early-life maternal care and the cortisol response to repeated psychosocial stress
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: In the past decade, a body of animal and human research has revealed a profound influence of early-life experiences, ranging from variations in parenting behaviour to severe adversity, on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation in adulthood. In our own previous studies, we have shown how variations in early-life parental care influence the development of the hippocampus and modify the cortisol awakening response. METHODS: In the present study, we investigated the influence of early-life maternal care on cortisol, heart rate and subjective psychological responses to the repeated administration of a psychosocial laboratory stressor in a population of 63 healthy young adults. Low, medium and high early-life maternal care groups were identified using the Parental Bonding Instrument. RESULTS: Controlling for the effect of sex, we found an inverted u-shaped relation between increasing levels of maternal care and cortisol stress responsivity. Specifically, overall and stress-induced cortisol levels went from below normal in the low maternal care, to normal in the medium care, back to below normal in the high maternal care groups. We found no group differences with respect to heart rate and subjective psychological stress measures. Whereas low and high maternal care groups exhibited similarly low endocrine stress responses, their psychological profiles were opposed with increased levels of depression and anxiety and decreased self-esteem in the low care group. LIMITATIONS: Sex was unequally distributed among maternal care groups, whereby the number of men with low maternal care was too small to allow introducing sex as a second between-group variable. CONCLUSION: We discuss the potential significance of this dissociation between endocrine and psychological parameters with respect to stress vulnerability and resistance for each maternal care group.
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Delayed effects of early adverse experiences on health and well-being are mediated through various neuroanatomical, neuroendocrine, and epigenetic factors.
“Delayed effects of early adverse experiences on health and well-being are mediated through various neuroanatomical (Choi, Jeong, Polcari, Rohan, & Teicher, 2012), neuroendocrine (Engert et al., 2010; Sturge-Apple, Davies, Cicchetti, & Manning, 2012), and epigenetic factors (Essex et al., 2013; McDermott, Dawes, Prom-Wormley, Eaves, & Hatemi, 2013).”
From A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ON THE IMPACT OF EXPOSURE TO INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUTH (2014) · cites this paper as Engert et al., 2010
The Abstract reports an association between early-life maternal care and cortisol stress responses in healthy young adults, supporting the neuroendocrine part of the citing sentence. The Discussion proposes a long-term HPA-axis adaptation, but the paper does not establish that this response mediates effects on health and well-being. No page numbers are available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Engert, V.
- Affiliations
- Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Engert, Veronika
- ORCID
- Engert, Veronika
- Venue
- Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Canadian Science Publishing
- Published
- 2010-11-01
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 370-377
- ISSN
- 1180-4882 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2964367
- OpenAlex
- W2116351297
- Cited by
- 86
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 3.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EN 859/1-1)
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (81143)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (249996)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Keywords
- cortisol, psychosocial stress, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, stress responsivity, heart rate, Parental Bonding Instrument, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, stress vulnerability, hippocampus, cortisol awakening response
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Female, Heart Rate, Hemodynamics, Hippocampus, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Life Change Events, Male, Maternal Behavior, Mothers, Neuropsychological Tests, Object Attachment, Social Environment, Speech, Stress, Psychological, Young Adult
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