Journal
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY
Volume 37, Issue 10, Pages 1700-1711Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2012.03.002
Keywords
Salivary cortisol; Salivary alpha-amylase; Executive function; Academic achievement; Early childhood
Categories
Funding
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHE) [R01 HD51502, P01 HD39667]
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
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Using data from a predominantly low-income, population-based prospective longitudinal sample of 1292 children followed from birth, indicators of children's autonomic (salivary alpha-amylase; sAA) and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis (salivary cortisol) activity at 7, 15, and 24 months of age were found to predict executive functioning at 36-months and academic achievement in pre-kindergarten. The findings suggested that the respective cortisol and sAA effects on executive functioning and academic achievement were interactive. Optimal developmental outcomes were associated with asymmetrical cortisol/sAA profiles. Higher cortisol levels were predictive of lower executive functioning and academic abilities, but only for those with concurrently moderate to high levels of sAA. In contrast, higher sAA concentrations were predictive of better executive functioning and academic abilities, but only for those with concurrently moderate to low levels of cordsol. These relations were statistically identical across infancy and toddlerhood. The conditional effects of cortisol and sAA on pre-kindergarten academic achievement were mediated fully by links between these early physiological indicators and executive functioning. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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