Early experience affects the intergenerational transmission of infant abuse in rhesus monkeys
Abstract
Maternal abuse of offspring in macaque monkeys shares some similarities with child maltreatment in humans, including its transmission across generations. This study used a longitudinal design and a cross-fostering experiment to investigate whether abusive parenting in rhesus macaques is transmitted from mothers to daughters and whether transmission occurs through genetic or experiential factors. Nine of 16 females who were abused by their mothers in their first month of life, regardless of whether they were reared by their biological mothers or by foster mothers, exhibited abusive parenting with their firstborn offspring, whereas none of the females reared by nonabusive mothers did. These results suggest that the intergenerational transmission of infant abuse in rhesus monkeys is the result of early experience and not genetic inheritance. The extent to which the effects of early experience on the intergenerational transmission of abusive parenting are mediated by social learning or experience-induced physiological alterations remains to be established.
Acknowledgments
I thank Anne Graff, Kai McCormack, Nancy Megna, and Richelle Scales for assistance with the experimental procedures and data collection; Shang Lin for statistical advice; and Mar Sanchez and Kim Wallen for collaboration and support. This work was supported by grants from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and National Institutes of Health Grants R01-MH57249, R01-MH62577, K02-MH63097, and RR-00165 (to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center).
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Copyright © 2005, The National Academy of Sciences.
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Received: March 5, 2005
Published online: June 27, 2005
Published in issue: July 5, 2005
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Acknowledgments
I thank Anne Graff, Kai McCormack, Nancy Megna, and Richelle Scales for assistance with the experimental procedures and data collection; Shang Lin for statistical advice; and Mar Sanchez and Kim Wallen for collaboration and support. This work was supported by grants from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and National Institutes of Health Grants R01-MH57249, R01-MH62577, K02-MH63097, and RR-00165 (to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center).
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Early experience affects the intergenerational transmission of infant abuse in rhesus monkeys, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
102 (27) 9726-9729,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0504122102
(2005).
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