Familiar and novel contexts yield different associations between cortisol and behavior among 2‐year‐old children (original) (raw)
Related papers
2002
This study, based on a sample of 172 children, examined the relation between average afternoon salivary cortisol levels measured at home at age 4.5 years and socioemotional adjustment a year and a half later, as reported by mothers, fathers, and teachers. Cortisol levels were hypothesized to be positively associated with withdrawaltype behaviors (e.g., internalizing, social wariness) and inversely related to approach-type behaviors, both negative and positive (e.g., externalizing, school engagement). Higher cortisol levels at age 4.5 predicted more internalizing behavior and social wariness as reported by teachers and mothers, although child gender moderated the relation between cortisol and mother report measures. An inverse relation was found between boys' cortisol levels and father report of externalizing behavior. A marginal inverse relation was found between child cortisol levels and teacher report of school engagement. Behavior assessed concurrently with cortisol collection did not account for the prospective relations observed, suggesting that cortisol adds uniquely to an understanding of behavioral development.
Developmental Psychobiology, 1999
Noon and evening salivary cortisol levels were examined in 70 elementary school children during the 1st week of a new school year. Samples were obtained on the 1st and 5th days of school and on weekend days. Delta cortisol scores were created to measure the change in children's levels on initial school days relative to weekend days. Temperament was assessed using Rothbart's Child Behavior Questionnaire, a parent report instrument. The three dimensions of surgency or extroversion, negative affectivity, and effortful control were examined. Positive correlations were obtained with Day 1 delta cortisol for negative affectivity and Day 5 delta cortisol for surgency. Contrary to the expectation that internalizing aspects of temperament (shyness, fearfulness) would be associated with larger increases in cortisol to the novelty and challenge of a new school year, these data indicate that larger increases in cortisol were observed in more extroverted children.
Child Development, 2003
This study examined salivary cortisol, a stress-sensitive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis hormone in 20 infants (12 females; M age 5 10.8 months) and 35 toddlers (20 females; M age 5 29.7 months) in full-day, center-based child care. Samples were taken at approximately 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. at child care and at home. At child care, 35% of infants and 71% of toddlers showed a rise in cortisol across the day; at home, 71% of infants and 64% of toddlers showed decreases. Toddlers who played more with peers exhibited lower cortisol. Controlling age, teacher-reported social fearfulness predicted higher afternoon cortisol and larger cortisol increases across the day at child care. This phenomenon may indicate context-specific activation of the HPA axis early in life.
Developmental Psychology, 2011
Associations between behavioral inhibition and activity of the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenocortical (HPA) system, a stress-sensitive neuroendocrine system indexed by salivary cortisol, have varied widely across studies. The current study examined the role of peer social experiences in moderating patterns of association between inhibition/risk-aversion and cortisol reactivity. As expected based on previous research, preschool children (N= 165, 78 boys, 3.0-5.0 years) had significantly different social experiences in their preschool classrooms depending on temperament. Highly inhibited/risk-averse children were less socially integrated, less dominant, and less involved in aggressive encounters than both average and highly exuberant/risk-seeking children, but they were no more likely to be peer rejected. Highly exuberant children were more dominant, exhibited anger more often, and had friendships characterized by higher conflict. Cortisol levels fell from fall to spring for the average and highly exuberant children, but not for the highly inhibited children. Unexpectedly, for highly inhibited children, having friends and being more dominant and popular than other highly inhibited children was associated with increasing cortisol levels over the school year. In contrast, highly exuberant children who were less socially integrated than other highly exuberant children maintained higher cortisol levels. Results indicate that the types of social experiences that affect stress-responsive biological systems may differ markedly for highly inhibited and highly exuberant children.
Internalizing disposition and preschool children's cortisol fluctuations
Child: care, health and development, 2008
Background Research on the impact of childcare suggested that young children's cortisol tends to increase or remain 'flat' across the day while their cortisol levels follow the typical circadian decrease between mid-morning and mid-afternoon at home. However, studies are needed to investigate what is happening to cortisol levels and whether individual variation exists in the cortisol rhythm in childcare. Methods Internalizing disposition was examined as a possible moderator of cortisol-linked stress response of young children in full-time, centre-based childcare. Ambulatory salivary sampling for cortisol was performed on 37 preschoolers at four different times for 10 consecutive school days. In order to test the interaction effect of internalizing disposition on cortisol levels, children were divided into four groups -the most internalizing group, the least internalizing group, and two groups in between, based on teacher-rated 'approach' scores. Results Repeated measure analyses of variance with polynomial contrast for time indicated that (1) a linear trend of significant increase between mid-morning and mid-afternoon exists for all children without group interactions; (2) quadratic and cubic trends exist and the interaction effects among the groups are significant, meaning the four groups are different in fluctuation pattern. Further analyses demonstrated that (1) the least internalizing children showed significant decreases in cortisol levels from morning to noon and after nap, although there is a considerable increase after lunch, (2) cortisol levels of the other three groups across the day fit the pattern of upward curve. Conclusion The tradition of the field in comparing mid-morning and mid-afternoon levels of cortisol as an indicator of childcare effect may not reflect individual variation in the fluctuation patterns of cortisol. Moderating effect of child characteristics needs to be considered in future research of childcare effect.
Hormones and Behavior, 2009
We examined the relations of 84 preschoolers' (43 boys; mean age = 54 months) situational stress reactivity to their observed emotions and mothers' reports of temperament and adjustment. Salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) were collected prior to, and following, a frustrating task. Children's anger, sadness, and positive affect were measured, and mothers reported on preschoolers' dispositional emotionality, regulation, impulsivity, and problem behaviors. Forty-seven percent of children had an increase in sAA and 52% had an increase in cortisol following the challenging task. On average, sAA levels showed the predicted pattern of rise following the frustrating task, followed by return to baseline. For cortisol, there was a mean increase from pre-task to 40 minutes post-test. sAA reactivity was associated with relatively low levels of dispositional anger and impulsivity and relatively high regulation, particularly for girls. sAA reactivity also was related to low externalizing problems for girls, but not boys. Although cortisol reactivity was unrelated to children's emotions and maladjustment, it was positively related to mothers' reports of regulation. The findings suggest that sAA reactivity in response to a frustrating social task may reflect girls' constrained behavior.
Cortisol levels in response to starting school in children at increased risk for social phobia
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2012
We would be most grateful if you would consider our paper for publication in the Journal. We feel our study has a number of strengths: Whereas past studies on the familiality of social phobia have tended to suffer from small and heterogeneous study groups, with cross-sectional designs, our study involved a large and diagnostically homogenous group of mothers with social phobia and their children, and utilized a prospective longitudinal design with multiple assessments of child functioning around the ecologically valid, and normative, social stressor of starting school. Further, our protocol for assessment of HPA axis functioning, involving saliva collections, was strong in that we used multiple sampling days, assessment of basal, stressed and recovery cortisol levels, and consideration of the diurnal rhythm. Our central finding of long-term disruption of the circadian rhythm in HPA axis activity in children of mothers with social phobia vs. non-anxious control mothers, following on the social stressor of starting school, is, to our knowledge, entirely novel, since it is the first study to report HPA axis disruption in children at risk of developing social phobia. It is also of scientific importance in opening up the possibility that such disruption may be involved in the process of intergenerational transmission of social phobia.
Developmental Psychobiology, 2009
Preschool-aged children (n ¼ 274) were examined in the laboratory to assess behavioral and cortisol responses to nonsocial and social threat. Parents also responded to scales on the Children's Behavior Questionnaire reflecting exuberant approach to novel/risky activities (reversed scored) and shyness. Multimethod measures of Nonsocial and Social Inhibition were computed. Parents and children were observed engaging in a series of interactive tasks and the Emotional Availability scales were scored for parental sensitivity, nonintrusiveness, nonhostility, and structuring. These scores were factored to yield one measure of Parenting Quality. Analyses revealed that Nonsocial and Social Inhibition could be distinguished and that associations with cortisol response were stressor specific. Moderation analyses revealed that parenting quality buffered cortisol elevations for extremely socially, but not nonsocially inhibited children. These findings are consistent with evidence that sensitive, supportive parenting is an important buffer of the HPA axis response to threat in infants and toddlers, and extends this finding to the preschool period. ß 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 51: 521-532, 2009.
Positive parenting has been related both to lower cortisol reactivity and more adaptive temperament traits in children, whereas elevated cortisol reactivity may be related to maladaptive temperament traits, such as higher negative emotionality (NE) and lower positive emotionality (PE). However, no studies have examined whether hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, as measured by cortisol reactivity, moderates the effect of the quality of the parent–child relationship on changes in temperament in early childhood. In this study, 126 3-year-olds were administered the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB; Goldsmith et al., 1995) as a measure of temperamental NE and PE. Salivary cortisol was collected from the child at 4 time points during this task. The primary parent and the child completed the Teaching Tasks battery (Egeland et al., 1995), from which the quality of the relationship was coded. At age 6, children completed the Lab-TAB again. From age 3 to 6, adjusting for age 3 PE or NE, a better quality relationship with their primary parent predicted decreases in NE for children with elevated cortisol reactivity and predicted increases in PE for children with low cortisol reactivity. Results have implications for our understanding of the interaction of biological stress systems and the parent–child relationship in the development of temperament in childhood.
Developmental Psychobiology, 2011
Previous research has provided inconsistent evidence for the relations between young children's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) functioning and their temperament, parenting, and adjustment. Building biopsychosocial models of adjustment, we examined how temperamental inhibition and maternal punishment contributed to preschoolers' adrenocortical activity while interacting with adult strangers. We also examined whether HPA functioning moderated relations between dispositional and familial factors and children's internalizing and externalizing problems. A total of 402 preschool-aged children from three independent samples with parallel and overlapping measures were studied. Salivary cortisol levels were measured twice while interacting with adult strangers during testing protocols. Mothers reported on temperamental inhibition, maternal punishment and children's problems. Maternal punishment predicted higher cortisol levels 20 and 65 min after meeting adult strangers. Prolonged cortisol elevation was associated with having fewer externalizing problems. Boys who experienced more maternal punishment and had higher cortisol 20 min after meeting strangers manifested more externalizing problems. Girls who were more inhibited and had prolonged cortisol elevations had more internalizing problems. In accord with biopsychosocial models of psychopathology, HPA functioning in preschoolers was sensitive to variations in socialization experiences, and moderated children's risk for emotional and behavioral problems. ß 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 53: 694-710, 2011.