Title: Parenting, Stress and Biology, Oh My! Examining Physiological Correlates of Parental Stress Among High-Risk Mothers for Child Maltreatment in an Evidence-Based Parenting Program

Introduction: Parental stress is an important risk factor for child maltreatment (CM) that can lead to poor parent-child interactions and heighted parent-child conflict, which directly increase the likelihood of perpetration of abuse. Behavioral parent-training programs (BPTs) have shown a positive impact on preventing CM, and reducing self-reported parental stress. However, no studies among high-risk parents for CM perpetration have examined physiological correlates of stress, such as impaired cortisol, and alpha amylase. Because there are many challenges with validity of self-report measures, it is imperative to explore biomarkers as novel benchmarks of parental stress.  Thus, the goal of this research was to conduct a quasi-experimental, multidisciplinary study from neuroscience and public health examining behavioral and physiological stress in response to a six-week, BPT, among a maternal population at risk of CM perpetration.

Methods:High-risk parents (n=18) were recruited from a children’s hospital pediatric clinic in Atlanta, Georgia. Participants completed repeated within-subject assessments of behavioral (self-report) and physiological (salivary cortisol, alpha amylase) stress pre-and post-intervention. This presentation will explore associations between self-reported parental stress and biomarkers, and will compare changes in biomarkers to changes in self-reported stress pre to post-intervention. Specifically, results from correlational analyses and repeated measures ANOVA will highlight the correspondence of self-reported with biomarkers of stress (salivary cortisol, and alpha amylase) and changes in self-report and physiological stress following the intervention, respectively. 

Results:Participants were African American (M age=27.0 years, SD=6.7), and of low socioeconomic status (60% <$20,000), with 77%, reporting exposure to at least one lifetime traumatic event.  Bivariate correlations indicate a high correlation between self-reported stress and cortisol levels (r= -.56, p=.037), and trending correlations with alpha amylase (r=.78, p=.057) at baseline. Trends, although non-significant, were noted among completers (n=10) towards decreased average self-report stress and improved cortisol and alpha amylase. Strong correlations between self-reported stress and alpha-amylase (r=.69, p=.03) were noted among completers.  

Conclusions:  Although study findings are preliminary, results suggest that cortisol and alpha amylase are compelling neurobiological correlates of parental stress. Further, evidence-based parenting programs may be beneficial in reducing self-report and psychological stress among at-risk parents. However, larger sample sizes and rigorous study designs are needed to validate these results. Implications of this work on child maltreatment prevention directions for future research will be discussed.