613 - Maternal ACEs, Resilience, and Infant Developmental Milestones during 1st Year of Life

Monday, May 1, 2023

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM ET

Poster Number: 613
Publication Number: 613.402

Hsiao-wei M. Banks, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, philadelphia, PA, United States; Leslie Abraham, Penn State Children's Hospital, Hummelstown, PA, United States; Krystal Hunter, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Camden, NJ, United States; Alla Kushnir, The Children's Regional Hospital at Cooper, Camden, NJ, United States

Presenting Author(s)

Hsiao-wei M. Banks, BA (she/her/hers)

Medical Student
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Background: Maternal risk factors such as maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and parental history of drug use are associated with poor offspring health. Maternal resiliency can be a protective factor against these risks. The interplay and impact of these factors on developmental milestone (DM) achieved during the infants' first year of life born to these mother is understudied.

Objective: To investigate the association between infant developmental milestones (DM) at 2, 4, 6, and 12 months of life and maternal ACEs, parental history of drug use, and maternal resiliency.

Design/Methods: Total of 108 mother-infant pairs were recruited in an urban tertiary level academic hospital's obstetric or pediatric clinic in New Jersey between 2020 and 2022. Women were approached at any point between their 2nd trimester of pregnancy and the two months post-partum visit to answer questionnaires about their offspring's maternal and paternal history of drug use. The women completed the 7C's Tool survey and Adverse Childhood Experience Questionnaire, which measured maternal resilience and maternal exposure to adverse experiences, respectively. Infant data was collected at 2-, 4-, 6-, and 12-months well-visits. For each visit, whether DMs were achieved was recorded, as well as specific milestones that were not achieved (motor, social/emotional (SED), communication/language, or cognitive). U-Mann Whitney test was utilized to compare Maternal ACE and resiliency scores with infant DMs. Chi-Square Test was used analyze all categorical data.

Results:

There was a higher rate of not meeting 6 month cognitive (p=0.05) and a trend for not meeting 6 month SED (p=0.08) in women with higher ACE scores. There was also a trend for not meeting 12 month DM (p=0.09) with higher maternal ACEs. There was no significant association between infant DM and maternal resiliency. Paternal marijuana use decreased the rate of DM achievement at 2 month (p=0.004) and 12 month (p=0.009), as well as reaching social/emotional (p=0.005) and cognitive (p=0.039) DM at 2-months and language at 12 months (p=0.05). There was also a trend in difficulty achieving SED and cognitive DM at 6 months and motor at 12 months in those with paternal mental health disorders.

Conclusion(s):

Our findings support growing evidence that maternal ACE’s influence their children, and that paternal marijuana use has impact on an infant's development. Future studies are needed to further investigate influence of maternal ACE’s on neonates and their outcomes, as well as the influence of paternal marijuana use on the children.