Journal
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY
Volume 56, Issue 3, Pages 340-354Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/dev.21103
Keywords
childhood; adopted children; stability; cortisol; hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; adversity; longitudinal
Categories
Funding
- NICHD [R01 HD042608, R01 DA020585]
- NIMH [R01 MH092118]
- OBSSR NIH
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This study addressed early calibration of stress systems by testing links between adversity exposures, developmental stability of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity, and behavior problems in a sample of adopted children. Families (n = 200) were assessed when the child was 9, 18, and 27 months, 4.5 and 6 years to collect adversity information-parent psychopathology, stress, financial need, and home chaos. Morning and evening cortisol samples at the final two assessments indexed child HPA activity, and parent-reported internalizing and externalizing at the final assessment represented child behavior outcomes. Increases in cumulative adversity from 4.5 to 6 related to higher child morning cortisol, whereas age six cumulative adversities related to lower, unstable child evening cortisol. Examination of specific adversity dimensions revealed associations between (1) increasing home chaos and stable morning cortisol, which in turn related to internalizing problems; and (2) high parental stress and psychopathology and lower, unstable evening cortisol, which in turn related to externalizing problems. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 56: 340-354, 2014.
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