Early Pubertal Maturation and Internalizing Problems in Adolescence: Sex Differences in the Role of Cortisol Reactivity to Interpersonal Stress (original) (raw)
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Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2009
Studies on the influence of sex hormones on cortisol responses to awakening and stress have mainly been conducted in adults, while reports on adolescents are scarce. We studied the effects of gender, menstrual cycle phase and oral contraceptive (OC) use on cortisol responses in a large sample of adolescents. Data come from TRAILS (TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey), a prospective population study of Dutch adolescents. This study uses data of 644 adolescents (age 15-17 years, 54.7% boys) who participated in a laboratory session including a performance-related social stress task (public speaking and mental arithmetic). Free cortisol levels were assessed by multiple saliva samples, both after awakening and during the laboratory session. No significant effects of gender and menstrual phase on cortisol responses to awakening were found, while girls using OC displayed a slightly blunted response (F(1, 244) = 5.30, p = .02). Cortisol responses to social stress were different for boys and free-cycling girls (F(3, 494) = 9.73, p < .001), and OC users and free-cycling girls (F(3, 279) = 15.12, p < .001). Unexpectedly, OC users showed no response at all but displayed linearly decreasing levels F(1, 279) = 19.03, p < .001) of cortisol during the social stress test. We found no effect of menstrual cycle phase on cortisol responses to social stress (F(3, 157) = 0.58, p = .55). The absence of a gender difference in the adolescents' cortisol awakening response found in this study is consistent with
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In many Western countries adolescents, especially girls, report high levels of stress and stress-related health complaints. In this study we investigate the concept of stress in a group of 14-15 year-olds (grade 8 in two Stockholm schools) using a multiple methods approach. The aim is to analyse stress, and gender differences in stress, as indicated by a measure of perceived stress (questionnaires, n=212), the diurnal variation in the biomarker cortisol (saliva samples, n=108) and the students' own accounts of stress (semi-structured interviews, n=49). The results were generated within the traditional framework of each method and integrated at the point of interpretation. The hypothesis that adolescent girls experience more stress than boys was confirmed by all methods used. In the questionnaire, the most commonly experienced aspects of perceived stress were the same among girls and boys, but girls consistently reported higher frequencies. The saliva samples showed that girls had greater cortisol output in the morning. In the individual semi-structured interviews, girls and boys discussed stress in similar ways but both acknowledged a gender gap to the disadvantage of girls. The results as a whole suggests an interpretation of gender differences that focuses girls' attitudes, perceived expectations and coping strategies in relation to school performance, with their focus on achievement, marks, hard work, and worries about the future. The findings point to a need of an increased awareness about the role of perceived expectations in the stress process, and that these expectations and their impact on stress may differ by the gender of the student.
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Dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been observed in association with internalizing symptoms and is thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of depression and some anxiety disorders. This study examined basal and stress-induced cortisol concentrations in relation to internalizing and externalizing symptoms in a racially mixed community sample of 102 8-11 year-old boys. Afternoon basal cortisol concentrations were positively correlated with measures of internalizing behavior problems, social problems, and emotionality. Greater change in cortisol across a home-visit challenge task was also significantly associated with internalizing behaviors and social problems, as well as attention and thought problems. The implications of these findings and how they may relate to the pathogenesis of emotional and behavioral problems are discussed.
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This study tested the hypothesis that higher rates of depression in adolescent girls are explained by their greater exposure and reactivity to stress in the interpersonal domain in a large sample of 15year-olds. Findings indicate that adolescent girls experienced higher levels of total and interpersonal episodic stress, whereas boys experienced higher levels of chronic stress (academic and close friendship domains). Higher rates of depression in girls were explained by their greater exposure to total stress, particularly interpersonal episodic stress. Adolescent girls were also more reactive (more likely to become depressed) to both total and interpersonal episodic stress. The findings suggest that girls experience higher levels of episodic stress and are more reactive to these stressors, increasing their likelihood of becoming depressed compared to boys. Results were discussed in terms of girls' greater interpersonal focus and implications for understanding sex differences in depression.
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Daily salivary cortisol profile: Insights from the Croatian Late Adolescence Stress Study (CLASS)
Introduction: The aim of the study was to examine basal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and to determine associations of various covariates (gender, sleep-wake rhythm, demographic, academic, life style and health-related characteristics) with altered daily salivary cortisol profiles in late adolescence. Materials and methods: The total analytic sample consisted of 903 Croatian secondary school students aged 18-21 years (median 19 years). Salivary cortisol was sampled at home at three time points over the course of one week and its concentrations were measured by using the enzyme immunoassay. Results: In comparison to males, female students had a higher cortisol awakening response (CAR) (median 4.69, IQR 10.46 and median 3.03, IQR 8.94, respectively; P < 0.001), a steeper (" healthier ") diurnal cortisol slope (DCS) (median 0.51, IQR 0.55 and median 0.44, IQR 0.51, respectively; P = 0.001), and a greater area under curve with respect to ground (AUC G) (median 206.79, IQR 111.78 and median 191.46, IQR 104.18, respectively; P < 0.001). Those students who woke-up earlier and were awake longer, had a higher CAR (P < 0.001), a flatter (" less healthy ") DCS (P < 0.001), and a greater AUCG (P < 0.001), than students who woke-up later and were awake shorter. Less consistent but still significant predictors of salivary cortisol indexes were age, school behaviour, friendship, diet healthiness and drug abuse. Conclusion: Gender and sleep-wake up rhythm were major determinants of the altered daily salivary cortisol profiles in late adolescence. The predictive power of other covariates, although less clear, has a potential for identifying vulnerable subgroups such as male drug users and females without a best friend.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2014
It is hypothesized that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamic-pituitarygonadal axes function together to maintain adaptive functioning during stressful situations differently in adolescence than the characteristic inverse relations found in adulthood. We examined within-person correlated changes (coupling) in cortisol, DHEA and testosterone in response to parent-adolescent conflict discussion, social performance, and venipuncture paradigms. Data are derived from two samples of boys and girls from the Northeastern US (213 adolescents aged 11-16, M = 13.7, SD = 1.5 years; 108 adolescents aged 9-14, M = 11.99, SD = 1.55) using different biological sampling vehicles (saliva and blood). Results consistently show that across samples, vehicles, and contexts, cortisol and DHEA and cortisol and testosterone are positively coupled in response to environmental stimuli. Findings underscore the importance of considering the effects of multiple hormones together in order to further our understanding of the biological underpinnings of behavior, especially during adolescence, as adolescence is a developmental transition period that may be qualitatively different from adulthood in terms of hormone functioning. #