Table 1.

Relative occurrence of maternal behaviors within adversity-reared vs. control-reared litters.

Maternal behavior (% time)	Control	Adversity-reared
In nest	54.89 ± 11.63	67.59 ± 8.83
Nursing	47.52 ± 4.66	58.51 ± 9.99
Milk ejection	0.59 ± 0.28	0.43 ± 0.07
Rough handling	0.68 ± 0.28	3.00 ± 0.91*
Grooming	4.72 ± 3.46	5.71 ± 3.91
Weight (g)	24.84 ± 1.60	23.02 ± 0.93
Plasma CORT (ng/dL)	74.19 ± 19.76	214.15 ± 50.31*

Decreasing bedding materials from 4000 to 100 ml produces robust and immediate changes in maternal behavior. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. Behavioral data are presented as percent time of observed behavior/sampling period using data from five litters in each condition. The relative frequency of rough handling (dragging and stepping on pups) is more frequent in the maltreating mothers, behaviors which typically occur as the mother enters and leaves the nest. Pup plasma corticosterone levels are elevated after 5 days of this adversity-rearing; these group differences are indicated in bold. *p < 0.05, Student’s t test, two-sided. This procedure is documented to induce later life neurobehavioral psychopathologies, which are summarized with citations in Supplementary Table 1.