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Could Parenting Stress and Lack of Support/Confidence Function as Mediating Mechanisms between Certain Environmental Factors and the Development of Autoimmunity in Children?
Author(s) -
SEPA ANNELI,
FRODI ANN,
LUDVIGSSON JOHNNY
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2002.tb03019.x
Subject(s) - disease , developmental psychology , psychology , social support , socioeconomic status , autoimmunity , type 1 diabetes , mood , etiology , psychological stress , diabetes mellitus , clinical psychology , medicine , immunology , immune system , psychiatry , social psychology , environmental health , endocrinology , population
A bstract : Despite extensive research, the etiology of type 1 diabetes is still to a large extent unknown. We would like to propose psychoimmunology as one possible pathway. Psychological mechanisms are directly linked to hormonal and nervous signals, which increase the need for insulin and affect the immune system. Disparate factors of social, environmental, and medical character have been associated with the onset of type 1 diabetes or with the autoimmune process leading to the disease—for instance, parental age, maternal infections, delivery mood, need for neonatal intensive care, and low socioeconomic status. Our results, based on the analyses of 4337 nonselected newborn children and their mothers, show that all these risk factors were also associated with psychological mechanisms (defined as lack of social support/confidence and high parenting stress). These results support the hypothesis of psychological mechanisms as mediating variables between a number of disparate risk factors and the development of type 1 diabetes.