Eva Möhler

Impact of a maternal history of childhood abuse on the development of mother-infant interaction during the first year of life

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of a maternal history of abuse on mother-infant interaction (emotional availability; EA) in infancy and early toddlerhood. Over an 18-month period, women giving birth to a child in the local obstetric units were screened using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Women who reported moderate or severe sexual and/or physical abuse were included in the maltreatment group (n=58; MG) and compared with a non-maltreated comparison group (n=61; CG). EA was investigated under experimental conditions when the children were 5 and 12 months of age using the Emotional Availability Scales. While mother-child dyads in the MG showed only very discrete interactional alterations at an infant age of 5 months, their EA differed significantly from the CG at 12 months due to the lack of an increase in EA observed in the MG. Exploratory analyses showed an additional effect of emotional abuse on EA at 12 months. These data indicate that the period when child locomotion develops might represent a critical time window for mothers with a history of abuse. Our results constitute an advance in research on child abuse as they identify a possible time window of non-normative alteration in mother-child interaction. This period could be targeted by strategies to prevent intergenerational transmission of abusive experiences.

Complications during pregnancy, peri- and postnatal period in a sample of women with a history of child abuse

Background. As a proposed risk factor for infant and child development, maternal history of abuse has been a frequent target of investigation. However, there have been no controlled studies about the impact of maternal history of abuse on the medical course of pregnancy, the peri- and postnatal period. Method. All women with a newborn child were contacted by mail and presented with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). The index group (n = 58) was formed by women who scored above the cutoff for moderate or severe abuse and compared to a control group (n = 60) with regard to pre,- peri-, and postnatal complications as documented in the patient charts. Results. The results show that women with a history of abuse have significantly more prenatal medical complications and infant medical complications in the post- but not perinatal period. Conclusions. Maternal history of abuse significantly impacts the medical course of delivery and the puerperium. Given the prevalence of abusive experiences, this finding is highly relevant from a preventive point of view.

Early detection of psychotic disorders in adolescents: specificity of basic symptoms in psychiatric patient samples.

Based on the results of adult studies that have shown a subgroup of basic symptoms to have a predictive value for later schizophrenic disorder, a cross-sectional study on 36 schizophrenic and 75 nonschizophrenic adolescent psychiatric inpatients was performed to elucidate the specificity of prodromal signs in early age groups. The occurrence of any single basic symptom does not show schizophrenic specificity in adolescents, but the number of basic symptoms in the categories of the Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptoms is increased in schizophrenic patients compared with subjects with other diagnoses. The interrelation between minus symptoms and cognitive symptoms exerts a higher amount of cognitive disturbances given a certain level of irritation in schizophrenic adolescents. With the help of odds ratios, the seven most discriminating cognitive items could be elucidated including perception, information processing and action tendency.

Psychotherapie der postpartalen Depression

ZusammenfassungDie Mutter-Kind-Interaktion nimmt im Rahmen der ambulanten und stationären Behandlung postpartal depressiver Mütter eine zentrale Stellung ein. Es ist bekannt, dass Säuglinge äußerst sensibel auf den emotionalen Zustand ihrer Mutter und anderer Bezugspersonen reagieren. Diese Sensitivität in den ersten Lebensmonaten ist grundlegend für das Verständnis des Einflusses mütterlicher psychiatrischer Erkrankungen auf die kindliche Entwicklung. Der postpartalen Depression kommt als der häufigsten psychischen Störung junger Mütter dabei eine zentrale Bedeutung zu. Die besondere Lebenssituation der jungen Mütter erfordert eine Anpassung des therapeutischen Angebotes an die Bedürfnisse der Patientinnen. Ansätze zur Behandlung der Mutter-Kind-Beziehung sowie Evaluationsstudien werden vorgestellt. Abschließend wird ein von der Heidelberger Projektgruppe entwickeltes psychotherapeutisches Behandlungsmodell für die postpartale Depression unter Einschluss Mutter-Kind-zentrierter Interventionen vorgestellt.SummaryIn the treatment of mothers with postpartum depression, mother-infant interaction plays a central role. It is well known that babies are very sensitive to their mothers’ emotional state. This sensitivity during the first months of life is fundamental to understanding the influence of maternal psychiatric disorders and especially of postpartum depression, as the most frequent, on children’s development. The specific situation of young mothers requires adaptation of psychotherapeutic approaches to their needs. In connection with an overview of these issues, models of mother-infant treatment as well as evaluation studies are discussed. Finally, an integrated treatment approach for postpartum depression including mother-infant-centered interventions is presented.

Maternal sensitivity and the empathic brain: Influences of early life maltreatment

One of the most striking characteristics of early life maltreatment (ELM) is the risk of transmission across generations, which could be linked to differences in maternal behavior. Maternal sensitivity includes appropriate and positive affective exchanges between mother and child. Mothers with a history of ELM have been found to show a lower sensitivity representing a significant risk factor for maltreating their own children. 25 mothers with and 28 mothers without sexual and/or physical childhood maltreatment (as assessed with the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse interview) and their children participated in a standardized mother-child interaction task. Videotaped interactions were rated by two independent trained raters based on the Emotional Availability Scales. In addition, empathic capabilities were assessed with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. High resolution structural magnetic resonance brain images of the mothers were analyzed with unbiased voxel-based morphometry and correlated with maternal sensitivity. Results indicate that mothers with ELM were less sensitive in the standardized interaction with their own child. In non-maltreated control mothers, maternal sensitivity was positively related to anterior insular grey matter volume, a region which is crucially involved in emotional empathy, while there was a positive association between maternal sensitivity and grey matter volume in parts of the cognitive empathy network such as the superior temporal sulcus and temporal pole region in mothers with ELM. These results implicate that neurostructural alterations associated with poor maternal sensitivity might be a sequelae of ELM and that mothers with ELM may try to compensate deficits in emotional empathy by recruiting brain regions involved in cognitive empathy when interacting with their child. Thus, findings suggest possible coping strategies of mother with ELM to prevent an intergenerational transmission of abuse.

The Early Mother-to-Child Bond and Its Unique Prospective Contribution to Child Behavior Evaluated by Mothers and Teachers

Maternal bonding has been described as the quality of the affective tie from a mother to her infant. This early bonds mental components and its longitudinal impact on child outcome have been markedly understudied. Although most researchers assume impaired maternal bonding to have a negative impact on child development, there is a lack of prospective studies evaluating this hypothesis. Since maternal mental health problems may negatively affect both bonding quality and child development, it is still to be determined whether there is a unique contribution of bonding quality to child behavior problems over and above maternal psychopathology. We examined a community sample of 101 mother-child dyads at the childs age of 2 weeks (t1) and 6 weeks (t2), 4 months (t3), 14 months (t4), and 5.5 years (t5). Maternal bonding and psychopathology were assessed at time points t1-t4 using the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ-16) and the Symptom Checklist Revised (SCL 90-R). Child behavior problems were rated in a multi-informant design by mothers and teachers at t5 using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). In the case of maternal judgment of child behavior problems, bonding at 14 months (t4) proved to be a significant predictor (β = 0.30; p = 0.011). Teacher-rated child behavior problems were significantly predicted by maternal bonding at 2 weeks (t1; β = 0.48; p = 0.025). Our results indicate a prospective influence of the early mother-infant bond on child development and underline the unique contribution of bonding quality to child behavior problems over and above the impact of maternal psychopathology in a community sample.

Wie entwickelt sich die kindliche Persönlichkeit? Beiträge zur Diskussion um Vererbung und Umwelt

Die Entwicklung der kindlichen Personlichkeit beginnt pranatal und vollzieht sich auf dem Hintergrund eines multifaktoriellen Bedingungsgefuges. Der vorliegende Artikel analysiert die wesentlichen konstituierenden Elemente dieses Gefuges im Lichte des aktuellen Forschungsstandes. Die Bedeutung des Bindungssystems wird fur das grundlegende Beziehungsverhalten und fur unterschiedliche Verletzlichkeitsmuster von Kindern beschrieben. Ein transaktionales Anlage-Umwelt-Modell berucksichtigt den wechselseitigen Einfluss von kindlicher Disposition und Umwelt. Gravierende exogene Einflusse konnen einen massiven Eingriff in das Bedingungsgefuge der regelhaften kindlichen Personlichkeitsentwicklung bedeuten. In diesem Beitrag werden die Mechanismen erlautert, durch die Traumata eine Desintegration des kindlichen Erlebens herbeifuhren und selbst grundlegende psychophysiologische Verhaltensdispositionen verandern konnen.

Effects of maternal history of depression and early life maltreatment on children's health-related quality of life

BACKGROUND There is a well-established link between maternal depression and child mental health. Similar effects have been found for maternal history of early life maltreatment (ELM). However, studies investigating the relationship of childrens quality of life and maternal depression are scarce and none have been conducted for the association with maternal ELM. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of maternal history of ELM and depression on childrens health-related quality of life and to identify mediating factors accounting for these effects. METHODS Our study involved 194 mothers with and without history of depression and/or ELM and their children between five and 12 years. Childrens health-related quality of life was assessed by maternal proxy- and child self-ratings using the KIDSCREEN. We considered maternal sensitivity and maternal parenting stress as potential mediators. RESULTS We found an effect of maternal history of depression but not of maternal history of ELM on health-related quality of life. Maternal stress and sensitivity mediated the effects of maternal depression on child global health-related quality of life, as well as on the dimensions Autonomy & Parent Relation, School Environment (maternal and child rating), and Physical Wellbeing (child rating). LIMITATION Due to the cross-sectional design of the study, causal interpretations must be made with caution. Some scales yielded low internal consistency. CONCLUSIONS Maternal impairments in areas of parenting which possibly developed during acute depression persist even after remission of acute affective symptoms. Interventions should target parenting stress and sensitivity in parents with prior depression.

Alterations of brain volumes in women with early life maltreatment and their associations with oxytocin

ABSTRACT Early life maltreatment (ELM) is associated with different neurobiological alterations. Lower oxytocin and altered grey matter volumes (GMV) in brain regions associated with the central oxytocin system, such as the hypothalamus, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens, have been reported in women with ELM. However, the association between peripheral oxytocin and brain morphometry in women with ELM has not been studied yet. We therefore collected blood samples from 33 women with and 25 women without ELM, all without current mental disorders to measure and compare oxytocin levels between the two groups. Furthermore, T1‐weighted high‐resolution structural magnetic resonance brain images of a subsample of these women were collected, analyzed with voxel‐based morphometry, compared between the two groups, and correlated with oxytocin levels. There were no differences in oxytocin levels between the groups. However, oxytocin levels were associated with different brain regions in women with ELM compared with control women without ELM: A positive association between GMV in the nucleus accumbens and oxytocin was specific for control women but not for women with ELM. For the hypothalamus, there was a positive association between GMV and oxytocin in control women. However, the same region was negatively associated with oxytocin in women with ELM and it showed larger GMV compared to control women without ELM. For the amygdala, a negative association between GMV and oxytocin was specific for women with ELM. Results are discussed with regard to previous research on endocrine and neurostructural alterations in individuals with ELM. HighlightsOxytocin differences were associated with neurostructural changes in maltreated and control women.In maltreated women, lower oxytocin was associated with greater volume in the hypothalamus.A negative association between oxytocin and amygdala volume was specific for maltreated women.A positive association between oxytocin and nucleus accumbens volume was specific for control women.

Link between children’s hair cortisol and psychopathology or quality of life moderated by childhood adversity risk

The hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) and its end product, the glucocorticoid cortisol, has been shown to be associated with psychopathology. Determining cortisol concentrations in hair (HCC) allows the investigation of long-term HPAA-activity. There is a significant scarcity of studies investigating the link between HCC and psychopathology and quality of life in child and adolescent samples. In addition, as the HPAA constitutes a feedback system enabling adaption to environmental demands, it is important to consider the socio-environmental context that the children grow up in. We therefore investigated the associations between child HCC and psychopathology/quality of life and compared these links in two groups of five to 12-year-olds: children living with mothers who report experiences of early life maltreatment (ELM) (high-risk group) and children whose mothers did not report any ELM (low-risk group). We expected that, under conditions of a high-risk environment, elevated HPAA-functioning would be associated with low levels of psychopathology and high levels of quality of life in children. Under low-risk conditions, elevated HPAA-functioning would be associated with high levels of psychopathology and low levels of quality of life in children. For the complete sample of N = 130 children, three-months HCC did not significantly predict child psychopathology or quality of life. However, there was a significant moderating effect of group membership: In the high-risk group, high levels of HCC were significantly associated with high levels of self-reported quality of life. In the low-risk group, there was no association between HCC and self-reported quality of life. For child psychopathology, in the low-risk group, high levels of HCC were significantly associated with high levels of teacher reported behavior problems, whereas in the high-risk group, the association did not reach significance. Our results underline the importance of accounting for the social environment children grow up in when investigating the link between HCC and child psychopathology and quality of life.