Highlights
- •We tested toddlers' stress hormones and self-regulation responses to adversity.
- •The sample comprised 94 mothers and toddlers living in poverty in the United States.
- •Toddler stress did not mediate parental caregiving and child self-regulation.
- •Toddlers had better soothability if mothers were more emotionally supportive.
Abstract
Purpose
The Developmental Psychobiological Model of Experiential Canalization (DPMEC) proposes
that conditions of poverty-related adversity influence child self-regulation through
parental caregiving, stress hormones, and the child's genetics. However, empirical
findings investigating these relationships with prolonged stress hormones are mixed.
Further, the relationships among conditions of adversity with prolonged stress hormones
have seldom been investigated in toddlers living in poverty. Guided by the DPMEC,
we examined the relationships among maternal caregiving, prolonged stress, and self-regulation
in toddlers living in poverty in the United States, to include examining whether toddler
prolonged stress mediated relations between maternal caregiving and child self-regulation.
Design and methods
Participants were mothers and toddlers (20 to 24 months of age) living in poverty,
who provided hair samples to measure four months of average cortisol concentration
to estimate prolonged stress. We used observational measures to examine maternal caregiving
and indirect report to measure children's self-regulation.
Results
Findings did not support the role of toddler prolonged stress in mediating the relationship
between maternal caregiving and toddler self-regulation. However, multiple linear
regression models showed that higher levels of maternal emotionally supportive caregiving
significantly predicted better toddler soothability (b = 0.90; p = .03; 95% CI [0.10, 1.69]; partial correlation = 0.26).
Conclusions
This study adds partial support for the DPMEC to represent associations between maternal
caregiving and toddler self-regulation for mothers and toddlers experiencing poverty.
Practice implications
While these data come from an observational study, pediatric nurses may consider assessing
maternal supportive caregiving upon reports of poor toddler soothability.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 11, 2022
Accepted:
June 28,
2022
Received in revised form:
May 19,
2022
Received:
December 14,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
