Thomas, Jenna C.Letourneau, Nicole LynBryce, Crystal I.Campbell, Tavis S.Giesbrecht, G. F.APrON Study Team2018-12-032018-12-032017-02-21Thomas, J. C., Letourneau, N. L., Bryce, C. I., Campbell, T. S., & Giesbrecht, G. F. (2017). Biological embedding of perinatal social relationships in infant stress reactivity. "Developmental Psychobiology", 59(4), 425-435. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dev.21505http://hdl.handle.net/1880/109225https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/43726Whereas significant advances have been made in understanding how exposure to early adversity "gets under the skin" of children to result in long-term changes in developmental outcomes, the processes by which positive social relationships become biologically-embedded remain poorly understood. The aim of this study was to understand the pathways by which maternal and infant social environments become biologically-embedded in infant cortisol reactivity. Two hundred seventy-two pregnant women and their infants were prospectively assessed during pregnancy and at 6 months postpartum. In serial mediation analyses, higher perceived social support from partners during pregnancy was associated with lower infant cortisol reactivity or larger decreases in cortisol in response to a stressor at 6 months of age via lower self-reported prenatal maternal depression and higher mother-infant interaction quality. The findings add to our understanding of how perinatal social relationships become biologically-embedded in child development.enbiological embeddingcortisol reactivitymother-infant interactionsocial supportjournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dev.21505