Dashiell D Sacks, Yiyi Wang, Asja Abron, Kaitlin M Mulligan, Caroline M Kelsey, Wanze Xie, Charles A Nelson, Michelle Bosquet Enlow
{"title":"EEG frontal alpha asymmetry mediates the association between maternal and child internalizing symptoms in childhood","authors":"Dashiell D Sacks, Yiyi Wang, Asja Abron, Kaitlin M Mulligan, Caroline M Kelsey, Wanze Xie, Charles A Nelson, Michelle Bosquet Enlow","doi":"10.1101/2024.09.15.24313329","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Background: Anxiety and depression are highly prevalent in youth and can cause significant distress and functional impairment. The presence of maternal anxiety and depression are well-established risk factors for child internalizing psychopathology, yet the responsible mechanisms linking the two remain unclear. Methods: We examined the potential mediating and moderating roles of EEG frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) in the intergenerational transmission of internalizing symptoms in a longitudinal sample of N = 323 mother-child dyads. Self-report maternal internalizing symptoms were evaluated at child age 3 years and 5 years, child EEG at 5 years, and parent-report child internalizing symptoms at age 7 years. Mediation was evaluated via bootstrapped (N = 5000) confidence intervals.\nResults: We found significant associations among maternal internalizing (anxiety, depressive) symptoms at child ages 3 and 5 years, child FAA at age 5 years, and child internalizing symptoms at age 7 years. There was a significant mediation effect, whereby greater maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms at age 3 years were significantly associated with greater relative right FAA in children at age 5 years, which, in turn, was significantly associated with greater child internalizing symptoms at age 7 years (ps<.001). There was no moderating effect of FAA on the association between maternal internalizing symptoms at age 5 years and child internalizing symptoms at age 7 years.\nConclusions: Greater right frontal asymmetry may be a neurophysiological mechanism that mediates the intergenerational transmission of internalizing symptoms.","PeriodicalId":501388,"journal":{"name":"medRxiv - Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"medRxiv - Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.15.24313329","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Anxiety and depression are highly prevalent in youth and can cause significant distress and functional impairment. The presence of maternal anxiety and depression are well-established risk factors for child internalizing psychopathology, yet the responsible mechanisms linking the two remain unclear. Methods: We examined the potential mediating and moderating roles of EEG frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) in the intergenerational transmission of internalizing symptoms in a longitudinal sample of N = 323 mother-child dyads. Self-report maternal internalizing symptoms were evaluated at child age 3 years and 5 years, child EEG at 5 years, and parent-report child internalizing symptoms at age 7 years. Mediation was evaluated via bootstrapped (N = 5000) confidence intervals.
Results: We found significant associations among maternal internalizing (anxiety, depressive) symptoms at child ages 3 and 5 years, child FAA at age 5 years, and child internalizing symptoms at age 7 years. There was a significant mediation effect, whereby greater maternal anxiety and depressive symptoms at age 3 years were significantly associated with greater relative right FAA in children at age 5 years, which, in turn, was significantly associated with greater child internalizing symptoms at age 7 years (ps<.001). There was no moderating effect of FAA on the association between maternal internalizing symptoms at age 5 years and child internalizing symptoms at age 7 years.
Conclusions: Greater right frontal asymmetry may be a neurophysiological mechanism that mediates the intergenerational transmission of internalizing symptoms.