Maternal Emotional Availability at Bedtime, Quality of Co-parenting, Infant Temperament, and Infant Diurnal Cortisol at 1 and 3 Months
Open Access
- Author:
- Philbrook, Lauren Elizabeth
- Graduate Program:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- March 30, 2012
- Committee Members:
- Douglas Michael Teti, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
- Keywords:
- parenting
diurnal cortisol rhythm
infancy - Abstract:
- Emerging evidence within both the animal and human literatures suggests that cortisol patterning in early infancy is influenced by early experience. Specifically, recent work with human infants suggests that infant cortisol patterning is sensitive to quality of caregiving (Grant et al., 2009; Albers et al., 2008; Blair et al., 2008; Kaplan et al., 2008), as well as to environmental contextual factors related to family adversity (Saridjan et al., 2010). This study sought to examine diurnal cortisol in early infancy, as predicted by maternal emotional availability (EA) at bedtime and quality of co-parenting, a measure of the family environment. Furthermore, because infant temperament has also been associated with infant diurnal cortisol and cortisol response to stress (Kartes et al., 2009; Talge, Donzella, & Gunnar, 2008; Schmidt et al. 1997), this study sought to examine how individual differences in temperament at 3 months of age influence the development of the diurnal rhythm, as well as how infant temperament interacts with quality of caregiving and the co-parenting environment to influence the development of the diurnal rhythm. Lastly, this study sought to examine whether infant sleep quality mediates the associations of maternal EA, co-parenting quality, and infant temperament with infant diurnal cortisol. The results indicated that maternal EA, co-parenting quality, and temperament are associated with diurnal cortisol in very young infants. At 1 month, infant diurnal cortisol patterning was related to negative co-parenting in the family environment, and at 3 months it was linked to maternal EA and infant negative affectivity. In addition, maternal EA at 1 month predicted infant diurnal cortisol at 3 months. In multiple regression analyses examining the unique associations of maternal EA, co-parenting quality, and infant temperament with infant diurnal cortisol, maternal EA emerged as the most important factor influencing the development of infant diurnal cortisol patterning. The interactions of infant temperament with maternal EA and co-parenting quality were not significant, and the relationships between co-parenting quality and infant cortisol, maternal EA and infant cortisol, and infant temperament and infant cortisol were not mediated by the quality of infant sleep.