Work

Exposure to Maternal Depression During Childhood and Adolescence and Problem Behavior in Early Adulthood: a Possible Mediating Role for Brain Structure

Year: 2014

Type: article

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to advance our understanding of neurobiological processes related to the intergenerational transmission of behavior problems related to emotional dysregulation by examining whether earlier and/or more chronic exposure to maternal depression would be associated with increased depressive symptoms and reactive aggressive behaviors in young adult offspring, and whether individual differences in amygdala volume, hippocampal volume, and/or amygdala:hippocampus volume ratio would mediate this association. Results were mixed, indicating that maternal depression evident in early childhood or chronic maternal depression was positively associated with offspring depression and reactive aggression in early adulthood in some but not all cases. Maternal depression was not significantly associated with the volume of any individual brain regions in offspring, but was, in some analyses, significantly associated with larger amygdala:hippocampal volume ratios. Likewise, the volume of individual brain regions was not linked with concurrent young adult depression or reactive aggression, but amygdala:hippocampal volume ratio was linked to young adult reactive aggression. Results did not support a mediating role for any individual brain region in the associations found between maternal depression and offspring depression or reactive aggression, but did suggest a mediating role for offspring amygdala:hippocampal volume ratio in the association between maternal depression trajectory grouping and offspring reactive aggression in young adulthood. Findings support a role for relative amygdala and hippocampus size in the intergenerational transmission of problems related to emotion regulation.

Source: D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh)

Author: Mary Gilliam

Language: English

Topic: Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: University of Pittsburgh, National Institute of Mental Health

Awards: G1282257372, G1826168685, Pathways to Early-and Late-Starting Antisocial Behavior, Basic & Applied Methods in Developmental Psychopathology

OpenAlex ID: W160651898