Swain JE, Ho SHS. Neuroendocrine mechanisms for parental sensitivity: overview, recent advances and future directions.
Curr Opin Psychol 2017;
15:105-110. [PMID:
28813249 PMCID:
PMC7195810 DOI:
10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.02.027]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2016] [Accepted: 02/27/2017] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
Early parent-infant relationships play important roles in infants' development. New parents adapt to the developing relationship with their infants to coordinate parenting behaviors in the milieu of infant needs, hormones, moods, and stress. This review highlights research from the past two years, using non-invasive brain-imaging techniques and naturalistic tasks in mothers and fathers in relation to psychological, and endocrine measures. Recent work also connects parental brain physiology with parental sensitive behavior, parent/child outcomes and parent psychotherapy. Understanding neurobiological mechanisms underlying parenting thoughts, behaviors and moods (see Figure 1) will help identify mental health risks and contribute to parental mental health interventions and resilience.
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