S39. The Association Between Mother-Infant Attachment Disorganization and Cortisol Attunement

Abstract

Background: Dysregulated cortisol secretion and disorganized mother-infant attachment are well-established risk factors for later psychopathology (Jessop & Turner-Cobb 2009; Lyons-Ruth & Jacobvitz, 2016). Mother-infant cortisol attunement is important to study because infants rely on their mothers for regulation, and attunement represents a physiological reflection of the dyad's shared emotional and behavioral experiences (Atkinson et al., 2016). Despite theoretical links, however, cortisol attunement has never been studied in relation to mother-infant attachment disorganization. Method(s): With a large community sample (n = 314), this study investigated associations between mother-infant attachment disorganization and cortisol attunement. Disorganization and cortisol attunement were assessed during the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) at infant age 17 months. Salivary cortisol was collected at baseline, and 20 and 40 minutes post-SSP. Data was analyzed using three approaches to probe different definitions of attunement: correlated growth modelling, crosslagged modelling, and difference score analyses. Result(s): The correlated growth model revealed that cortisol trajectories in disorganized dyads, relative to organized dyads, were significantly correlated, such that, among disorganized dyads, as infants had greater increases in cortisol, mothers had greater decreases in cortisol (b = -.03 SE = .01, p < .05). The cross lagged model revealed no associations between disorganized attachment and attunement when defined as both reciprocal and lagged. Difference score analyses revealed that disorganized (relative to organized) dyads had greater divergence between maternal and infant cortisol values (b = -.07, p < .05). Conclusion(s): Findings suggest that disorganized attachment is a marker of maternal difficulty physiologically regulating her infant.