Oxytocin and Human Sensitive and Protective Parenting

Validation of the Parental Responsiveness Scale

BACKGROUND

Parental responsiveness is a parent's predisposition to react to their child's verbal and non-verbal cues promptly and adequately. There is no self-report scale that measures this type of behavior. The aim of this study was to construct a valid and useful scale to measure this construct as subjectively reported by parents of young children.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

Two hundred and fifty parents (including 186 mothers) of young children aged from 1 to 18 months (Mage = 8.60, SDage = 4.06) took part in the study. To confirm the external validity of the tool, participants filled in the following questionnaires: the Parental Responsiveness Scale, the Empathic Sensitivity Scale, and the Experience in Close Relationships-Revised Scale - short version.

RESULTS

The confirmatory analysis verified the one-dimensional structure and that the model has a good fit. Moreover, the results of external validation indicated satisfactory correlations between parental responsiveness and empathic concern (r = .30, p < .01), perspective-taking (r = .31, p < .01), and avoidance (r = .23, p < .01) in relationships.

CONCLUSIONS

The Parental Responsiveness Scale is valid and reliable. This scale could be useful in research on family and child development, and on individual differences between parents, but can also be of use in practice.

Vasopressin and parental expressed emotion in the transition to fatherhood

In the last decades, parenting researchers increasingly focused on the role of fathers in child development. However, it is still largely unknown which factors contribute to fathers' beliefs about their child, which may be crucial in the transition to fatherhood. In the current randomized within-subject experiment, the effect of nasal administration of vasopressin (AVP) on both Five Minute Speech Sample-based (FMSS) expressed emotion and emotional content or prosody was explored in 25 prospectivefathers. Moreover, we explored how the transition to fatherhood affected these FMSS-based parameters, using prenatal and early postnatal measurements. Analyses revealed that FMSS-based expressed emotion and emotional content were correlated, but not affected by prenatal AVP administration. However,child's birth was associated with an increase in positivity and a decrease in emotional prosody, suggesting that the child's birth is more influential with regard to paternal thoughts and feelings than prenatal AVP administration.

Intranasal oxytocin enhances stress-protective effects of social support in women with negative childhood experiences during a virtual Trier Social Stress Test

Oxytocin is considered a biological mechanism underlying stress-protective effects of positive social interactions. It is assumed to underlie the women-specific tend-and-befriend response to stress, although few studies have tested this assertion with female samples. The aim of the present study was, therefore, to test whether oxytocin enhances stress-protective effects of social support during stress in women, taking into account the moderating role of childhood adversity. The sample consisted of 180 female undergraduate students who had reported on experiences of childhood abuse and how often their mother used love withdrawal as an insensitive disciplinary strategy. Women participated in a virtual version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and were randomly assigned to receive 24 IU oxytocin or a placebo and to receive support or no support from a female friend (sub-groups N = 45). Results showed that oxytocin reduced heart rate variability during the TSST in participants who received support, possibly indicating that oxytocin increases attention and stimulates a challenge motivational state in the presence of a friend. In addition, we found that, in the presence of a friend, oxytocin reduced state anxiety levels and cortisol levels after the TSST, but only in women with higher levels of adverse childhood experiences. Our findings may indicate that oxytocin is a neurobiological means to attain and benefit from social support under stressful circumstances, which may be particularly adaptive for women with a history of adversity. Thus, oxytocin may function as motivator for affiliative disposition during stress exposure in women with a history of childhood adversity. Results should be replicated in clinical samples.

Predicting infant-father attachment: the role of pre- and postnatal triadic family alliance and paternal testosterone levels

This longitudinal study examined whether prenatal family alliance and prenatal paternal testosterone levels predicted infant-mother and infant-father attachment security and whether this association was mediated by postnatal family alliance and postnatal paternal testosterone levels. In 105 couples expecting their first child, family alliance was assessed in the third trimester of pregnancy with the prenatal version of the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP). Family alliance was measured again 6 months postnatally, using the LTP. Fathers provided testosterone samples prenatally and at 6 months postnatally. Infant-parent attachment was assessed with the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS) at 24 months. Results indicated an increase in paternal testosterone levels from the pre- to the postnatal period. A more positive prenatal family alliance predicted higher infant-father attachment security at 24 months, but not infant-mother attachment security. The association between prenatal family alliance and attachment security was not mediated by postnatal family alliance or postnatal paternal testosterone levels. This study highlights the significance of prenatal family relations, and the need to consider in research and practice the divergent effects of prenatal family alliance patterns on the emerging infant-mother and infant-father attachment relationships. The underlying hormonal mechanisms during the transition to fatherhood are important targets for future research.

Oxytocin reduces interpersonal distance: Examining moderating effects of childrearing experiences and interpersonal context in virtual reality

Oxytocin has been shown to stimulate social approach behaviors, although effects may depend on contextual and individual difference factors. Here, we examined intranasal oxytocin effects on interpersonal distance using an immersive Virtual Reality paradigm, taking into account early caregiving experiences and interpersonal context as potential moderators. Participants were 180 women who received 24 IU oxytocin or a placebo and had reported how often their mother used love withdrawal as a disciplinary strategy, involving withholding love and affection after a failure or misbehavior. We used a virtual stop-distance paradigm, instructing participants to approach a virtual person or to stop an approaching virtual person at a preferred distance (passive approach). In order to examine the role of interpersonal context in shaping oxytocin effects, facial expressions and bodily gestures of the virtual person were manipulated. The person showed a dynamical expression of sadness, happiness, anger, fear, disgust, or no emotional expression in six different emotion conditions. We found that oxytocin reduced interpersonal distance across the different emotion conditions, but only in individuals with lower levels of love withdrawal. In addition, oxytocin reduced anxiety levels during passive approach, in particular in the disgust condition, but only in individuals with lower levels of maternal disciplinary love withdrawal. Individuals with more love withdrawal experienced more anxiety while being approached by a virtual person displaying disgust or fear, but benefitted less from anxiety-reducing oxytocin effects. These results are consistent with previous research showing a dysregulated oxytocinergic system after childhood adversity and indicate that oxytocin may be less effective for individuals who are most in need of an intervention because of a problematic family background.

Hippocampal volume modulates salivary oxytocin level increases after intranasal oxytocin administration

Adverse childhood experiences have been shown to affect sensitivity to intranasal oxytocin administration, but the neural mechanisms underlying this altered sensitivity are unclear. The aim of the current study was to examine whether hippocampal abnormalities underlie the effects of adversity on the response to oxytocin administration. In a sample of healthy women (N = 54, age M = 19.63), we examined 1) the association between hippocampal volume and experiences of emotional maltreatment and 2) whether hippocampal volume reductions influence the effect of intranasal oxytocin administration on salivary oxytocin levels. There was no association between hippocampal volume and experiences of emotional maltreatment in the current study. However, we found that larger hippocampal volume was related to a stronger increase in salivary oxytocin level after intranasal oxytocin administration. The hippocampus may be a neural substrate underlying individual differences in sensitivity to oxytocin administration.