Longitudinal associations between mother-child attachment security in toddlerhood and white matter microstructure in late childhood: a preliminary investigation

ABSTRACT

Early childhood experiences are considered to influence the strength and effectiveness of neural connections and thus the development of brain connectivity. As one of the most pervasive and potent early relational experiences, parent-child attachment is a prime candidate to account for experience-driven differences in brain development. Yet, knowledge of the effects of parent-child attachment on brain structure in typically developing children is scarce and largely limited to grey matter, whereas caregiving influences on white matter (i.e. neural connections) have seldom been explored. This study examined whether normative variation in mother-child attachment security predicts white matter microstructure in late childhood and explored associations with cognitive-inhibition. Mother-child attachment security was assessed using home observations when children (N = 32, 20 girls) were 15 and 26 months old. White matter microstructure was assessed using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging when children were 10 years old. Child cognitive-inhibition was tested when children were 11 years old. Results revealed a negative association between mother-toddler attachment security and child white matter microstructure organization, which in turn related to better child cognitive-inhibition. While preliminary given the sample size, these findings add to the growing literature that suggests that rich and positive experiences are likely to decelerate brain development.

KEYWORDS:

• Diffusion tensor imaging
• structural connectivity
• white matter
• parent-child relationships
• early childhood environment
• brain development

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Natasha Ballen, Laurianne Bastien, Marie-Ève Bélanger, Stéphanie Bordeleau, Andrée-Anne Bouvette-Turcot, Catherine Cimon-Paquet, Isabelle Demers, Marie Deschênes, Christine Gagné, Sarah Hertz, Véronique Jarry-Boileau, Jessica Laranjo, Élodie Larose-Grégoire, Émilie Lemelin, Nadine Marzougui, Célia Matte-Gagné, Juliette Milner, Chantal Mongeau, Marie-Pier Nadeau-Noël, Rachel Perrier, Émilie Rochette, Marie-Soleil Sirois, Émilie Tétreault, Natasha Whipple, and Emeline Wyckaert for help with data collection. The authors want to express special gratitude to the participating families of the Grandir Ensemble project who generously opened their homes to us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly; therefore, supporting data are not available.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2023.2172437

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by grants awarded to A. Bernier by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [MOP-119390]; the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et Culture [2012-RP-144923]; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [RGPIN-2019-05084]; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [410-2010-1366; 435-2016-1396]