Gender is Key: Girls' and Boys' Cortisol Differs as a Factor of Socioeconomic Status and Social Experiences During Early Adolescence

Interplay of Adolescents' and Parents' Mindsets of Socioeconomic Status on Adolescents' Stress-Related Outcomes

The reciprocity and variation of values and beliefs are dynamic features of the parent-child relationship. Parents and adolescents may hold congruent or incongruent views regarding the malleability of socioeconomic status (mindset of SES), potentially influencing adolescents' psychological and physiological stress outcomes, as reflected in stress perceptions and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. The current study investigated how patterns of parent-adolescent congruence and incongruence in mindset of SES were associated with adolescents' perceived stress and diurnal cortisol patterns four months later. A total of 253 adolescents (Mage = 12.60, 46.2% girls) and their parents (Mage = 40.09 years, 59.5% mothers) participated in this study. Polynomial regression analyses and response surface analyses showed that adolescents perceived lower levels of stress when they themselves or their parents reported a stronger growth mindset of SES. Additionally, adolescents with a stronger growth mindset of SES also exhibited a steeper diurnal cortisol slope. Moreover, parents' mindset significantly interacted with adolescents' mindset to influence adolescents' diurnal cortisol patterns such that when adolescents hold weaker growth mindset of SES, those with higher parental growth mindsets had significantly higher cortisol awakening response and steeper diurnal cortisol slope. Furthermore, adolescents who showed incongruence with their parents but had averagely stronger growth mindsets of SES reported a significantly steeper diurnal cortisol slope than those who had averagely weaker growth mindsets with their parents. The findings point to the beneficial impacts of the growth mindset of SES on stress-related outcomes among adolescents, as well as the significance of considering both parents' and adolescents' mindsets when exploring these associations.

Dimensions of child maltreatment and longitudinal diurnal cortisol patterns: The roles of resilience and child sex

Informed by the dimensional approach to adversity, this study disaggregated child maltreatment effects to examine how abuse versus neglect influenced cortisol at the baseline assessment and longitudinal changes in diurnal cortisol among a sample of Chinese children and adolescents (N = 312; aged 9-13 years; M age = 10.80, SD = 0.84; 67% boys). The moderating roles of resilience and sex differences in these associations were also explored. Results revealed distinct effects of abuse versus neglect on diurnal cortisol in girls, but not boys, which varied by the time scale of assessment and type of cortisol measure. Specifically, abuse was associated with girls' longitudinal changes in awakening cortisol, cortisol awakening response, and diurnal cortisol slope over one year, whereas neglect was associated with girls' awakening cortisol and cortisol awakening response at the baseline assessment. Further, resilience moderated the effects of abuse on girls' baseline awakening cortisol and longitudinal changes in diurnal cortisol slope, suggesting both the potential benefits and costs of resilience. Findings support the application of the dimensional approach to research on stress physiology and deepen our understanding of individual differences in the associations between child maltreatment and diurnal cortisol.

Parent-Child Separation and Diurnal Cortisol Rhythms Among Left-Behind Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Sex

Prior research examining parent-child separation and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning has primarily focused on separation due to parental divorce or loss or forced migration. Less clear is the impact of parental economic migration on adolescents' HPA axis functioning. The present study fills this gap by examining diurnal cortisol patterns among left-behind adolescents who experienced separation from their migrant parents. Participants were 293 Chinese adolescents (33.4% girls, 66.21% left-behind adolescents; M_age = 10.80 years old, SD = 0.82 years). Two-level multilevel modeling was conducted to examine the associations between parent-child separation experiences and diurnal cortisol patterns. Although no significant differences were found between left-behind adolescents and their non-left-behind peers, results revealed that left-behind adolescents who experienced parent-child separation at earlier ages had more blunted diurnal cortisol slopes (usually signaling poorer mental and physical health), compared to their counterparts who experienced separation at older ages. Left-behind adolescent girls who had more adverse separation experiences exhibited smaller waking cortisol and blunted diurnal slopes; these findings were not observed among left-behind adolescent boys. Observing the association between timing of parent-child separation and adolescents' diurnal cortisol and the moderating effects of child sex, this study contributes uniquely to the developmental science of left-behind adolescents' physiological health.

Association between stress and eating behaviour among Malaysian adolescents prior to examination

Studies have shown the prevalence of mental health and obesity among adolescents is at increasing trend due to urbanisation and changes in lifestyle. This study is to investigate the level of stress and its impact on eating behaviour among Malaysian adolescents. A total of 797 multi-ethnic Malaysian secondary school student participated in this cross-sectional study. Data was collected two weeks prior to final year examination. A validated Cohen Perceived Stress Scale questionnaire was used to assess the stress level with subsample analysis of 261 participants' saliva cortisol level. A validated Child Eating Behaviour questionnaire was used to explore eating behaviours. There were 29.1% adolescents having high stress with the mean saliva cortisol 3.8 nmol/L. A positive correlation was observed between perceived stress and emotional overeating; stronger among urban (r = 0.32), female (r = 0.31), underweight (r = 0.34) and moderately stressed adolescents (r = 0.24). In addition, a positive correlation was found between perceived stress and food responsiveness; strongest among Malay (r = 0.23), male (r = 0.24), underweight (r = 0.30) and adolescents with high perceived stress (r = 0.24). The perceived stress level prior to exam period affects the emotional eating and external eating patterns of adolescents.

Cortisol awakening response and testosterone jointly affect adolescents' theory of mind

Adolescence is a critical period for the maturation of neurobiological processes and hormone secretion. Recent studies on the dual-hormone hypothesis have indicated that basal cortisol and testosterone jointly affect dominant and aggressive behavior among adolescents and adults. Whether this hypothesis applies to prosocial-related understanding of others' mental states remains unclear. The present study investigated associations between basal testosterone, basal cortisol (and cortisol awakening response [CAR]), and the cognitive/affective theory of mind (ToM) in 243 adolescents (67.9 % male, aged 14 to 17 years, M_age = 16.09, standard deviation = 0.62). Cognitive ToM (cToM) and affective ToM (aToM) were assessed with a cartoon story reasoning task: In the cToM condition, participants viewed a comic strip story and needed to predict what would happen based on a character's intentions, and in the aToM condition, they viewed a comic strip of two characters interacting and needed to think about what would make the protagonist feel better. The results showed that basal testosterone and basal cortisol did not interact with each other to affect the performance of ToM, either in terms of ToM accuracy or response speed. However, under the condition of low CAR, testosterone is associated with the fast performance of cToM, although the interaction of testosterone and CAR occurred only in female adolescents. Overall, our data provide new evidence for the dual-hormone hypothesis and further extend the hypothesis to social understanding.

Physiological reactions to acute stressors and subjective stress during daily life: A systematic review on ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies

Objective

This review aims to provide an overview of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies analyzing stress reactivity during daily life in terms of direct and moderated influence of acute stress on physiological responses.

Materials and methods

A systematic literature search was performed on November 29, 2021 using Web of Science, MEDLINE and PsycINFO to identify prospective EMA studies targeting acute stressors or stress under naturalistic conditions, without restrictions of publication date or population. Study quality was assessed for multiple EMA-specific sources of bias.

Results

Out of 4285 non-duplicate records, 107 publications involving 104 unique studies were included. The majority of studies assessed acute physiological stress responses primarily through salivary cortisol (n = 59) and cardiovascular outcomes (n = 32). Most studies performed at least three measurements per day (n = 59), and had a moderate risk of recall bias (n = 68) and confounding (n = 85). Fifty-four studies reported a compliance of ≥80%. Direct, non-moderated positive associations were observed between acute stress exposure and concurrent cortisol levels (44%, n = 11/25), systolic (44%, 8/18) and diastolic blood pressure (53%, 8/15) and heart rate (53%, 9/17). Several inter- and intra-individual moderators were identified, such as age, gender, health status, chronic stress, work-related resources, physical activity and stress coping indicators.

Conclusions

About half of the reviewed EMA studies demonstrated direct associations between everyday acute stress exposure and physiological responses, including increased cortisol levels, blood pressure and heart rate. Results further suggested various moderator variables that could help develop tailored prevention strategies and identify groups at higher risk for dysfunctional stress responses.

Registration

PROSPERO—Reg.-No.: PROSPERO 2020 CRD42020163178.