Coping with Childbirth: Brain Structural Associations of Personal Growth Initiative.

ABSTRACT: Major life events require psychological adaptations and can be accompanied by brain structural and functional changes. The goal of the current study was to investigate the association of personal growth initiative (PGI) as a form of proactive coping strategy before childbirth, with gray matter volume after delivery. Childbirth is one of the few predictable major life events, which, while being one of the most positive experiences for many, is also accompanied by multidimensional stress for the mother. Previous research has shown that high stress is associated with reductions in gray matter volume in limbic cortices as well as the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We hypothesized that PGI before childbirth is positively related to gray matter volume after delivery, especially in the ventromedial PFC

SUBMITTER: Mangelsdorf J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5671760 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature