Maternal-Child Cortisol Attunement Differs in Preschoolers with Autism, Fragile X Syndrome, and Neurotypical Development

Early maternal-child attunement sets a critical foundation for later social development. While maternal and child cortisol attunement in neurotypical (NT) development has been clearly established, little research has examined these relations in neurodevelopmental populations, such as those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Fragile X Syndrome (FXS). Given their elevated-risk for disrupted maternal-child attunement and given elevated stress and dysregulated cortisol patterns in both children with ASD and FXS and their parents independently, this is a critical gap. This study addressed this gap in the literature by examining early maternal-child cortisol attunement in 97 mother-child dyads (nNT = 32, nASD = 34, nFXS = 34) in a period of early development (age range: 23.45-67.89 months) at pre-assessment and post-assessment timepoints, as well as in cortisol regulation. Results indicated that pre-assessment attunement was weaker for both neurodevelopmental groups in comparison to their NT peers. No groups were attuned at post-assessment, and regulation attunement was weaker for preschoolers with FXS than for the NT group. These results map on to the extant literature by demonstrating disrupted attunement for specific elevated-risk groups and by elucidating potential early contributors to later established social development phenotypic markers of ASD and FXS.