Dataset Information

The Enduring Importance of Parenting: Caregiving Quality and Fear-Potentiated Startle in Emerging Adults With a Child Maltreatment History.

ABSTRACT: Background: The transition to adulthood is a period of increased risk for emergent psychopathology; emerging adults with a childhood maltreatment history are at risk for poor outcomes. Method: Using a multi-measure, transdisciplinary, cross-sectional design, this study tested whether participant-reported positive parenting, a potential resilience-promoting factor, moderated the association between clinician-rated PTSD symptom severity and a transdiagnostic maladjustment biomarker, fear-potentiated startle (FPS), in a sample of 66 emerging adults (M_years = 18.83, SD = 0.89) with a maltreatment history. We hypothesized that characteristics of effective parenting would moderate the relation between PTSD symptoms and FPS. Results: Results indicated that elevated PTSD, as measured by the CAPS, was associated with a more severe startle reaction. The magnitude of the increase in startle reactivity was moderated by parenting such that those with more positive parenting (Accepting [relative to rejecting]: b = -0.42, p < .001; Psychologically-controlling [relative to autonomy-promoting]: b = 2.96, p = .004) had significantly less reactivity across the task at higher levels of PTSD symptoms. Conclusions: Emerging adults with childhood maltreatment histories, high levels of PTSD symptoms, and who perceive present-day high-quality caregiver support may cope better with novel stressors relative to youth lacking that support, potentially translating to better psychological outcomes.

SUBMITTER: Sullivan ADW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9316457 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Enduring Importance of Parenting: Caregiving Quality and Fear-Potentiated Startle in Emerging Adults With a Child Maltreatment History.

Sullivan Alexandra D W ADW Brier Zoe M F ZMF Legrand Alison C AC van Stolk-Cooke Katherine K Jovanovic Tanja T Norrholm Seth D SD Garavan Hugh H Forehand Rex R Price Matthew M

Child maltreatment 20211209 1

<b>Background:</b> The transition to adulthood is a period of increased risk for emergent psychopathology; emerging adults with a childhood maltreatment history are at risk for poor outcomes. <b>Method:</b> Using a multi-measure, transdisciplinary, cross-sectional design, this study tested whether participant-reported positive parenting, a potential resilience-promoting factor, moderated the association between clinician-rated PTSD symptom severity and a transdiagnostic maladjustment biomarker, ...[more]

PMID: 34886701

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Project description:BackgroundMajor theories propose that perturbed threat learning is central to pathological anxiety, but empirical support is inconsistent. Failures to detect associations with anxiety may reflect limitations in quantifying conditioned responses to anticipated threat, and hinder translation of theory into empirical work. In prior work, we could not detect threat-specific anxiety effects on states of conditioned threat using psychophysiology in a large sample of patients and healthy comparisons. Here, we examine the utility of an alternative fear potentiated startle (FPS) scoring in revealing associations between anxiety and threat conditioning and extinction in this dataset. Secondary analyses further explored associations among conditioned threat responses, subcortical morphometry, and treatment outcomes.MethodsYouths and adults with anxiety disorders and healthy comparisons (n = 306; 178 female participants; 8-50 years) previously completed a well-validated differential threat learning paradigm. FPS and skin conductance response (SCR) quantified psychophysiological responses during threat conditioning and extinction. In this report, we examined normalizing raw FPS scores to intertrial intervals (ITI) to address challenges in more common approaches to FPS scoring which could mask group effects. Secondary analyses examined associations between FPS and subcortical morphometry and with response to exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy in a subsample of patients.ResultsPatients and comparisons showed comparable differential threat conditioning using FPS and SCR. While SCR suggested comparable extinction between groups, FPS revealed stronger retention of threat contingency during extinction in individuals with anxiety disorders. Extinction indexed with FPS was not associated with age, morphometry, or anxiety treatment outcome.ConclusionITI-normalized FPS may have utility in detecting difficulties in extinguishing conditioned threat responses in anxiety. These findings provide support for extinction theories of anxiety and encourage continued research on aberrant extinction in pathological anxiety.

Dataset Information

The Enduring Importance of Parenting: Caregiving Quality and Fear-Potentiated Startle in Emerging Adults With a Child Maltreatment History.

Publications

The Enduring Importance of Parenting: Caregiving Quality and Fear-Potentiated Startle in Emerging Adults With a Child Maltreatment History.

Similar Datasets

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