Grant: Operating Grant

Parenting is an important influence on child health and development. Yet we know very little about the range of factors that directly influence parental care. The behaviour of parent towards their offspring is the result of cognitive and emotional processes that are regulated by brain function, which can reflect a variety of influences. Variations in genes that regulate specific aspects of brain function are one obvious candidate influence. Included among these are variations within the oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin systems. Likewise, the quality of the environment within which parent child interactions occurs influences parental behaviours. Thus, environmental present stressors and past experiences affect the quality of parent child interactions, as does the behaviour of the child. We suggest that these influences interact to determine parental care. In these studies we will analyze mother-child interactions in a cohort of 400 mother-child dyads recruited into the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment Project (MAVAN). We code for specific mother child interactions and child attachment at ages ranging from 6 to 60 months of age. The primary focus of the present study is maternal behaviors exhibited between 48 and 60 months. We predict that the three gene families will relate differently to mothering, with dopamine associated with attention, serotonin with affect, and oxytcin with early nursing and attachment. These gene variants are also predicted to interact in their effects with mothers' early experiences, stressors, and the age and characteristics (e.g., temperament) of the child.