Correlates of physiological stress reactivity in middle childhood

Contains fulltext : 126372.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, 11 februari 2014Promotor : Riksen-Walraven, J.M.A. Co-promotor : Weerth, C. de133 p

The relation between gaze aversion and cortisol reactivity in middle childhood

Item does not contain fulltextThe present study sought to investigate the relation between ethological observations of children's gaze aversion during a psychosocial stress task and their cortisol reactivity to the task, and how this relation might be moderated by how stressful the children perceived the stress task to be. Videos of 140 children (74 girls; M-age = 10.60 years) performing a psychosocial stress task in front of a jury were coded for displays of the children's gaze aversion from the jury, and saliva samples were taken to determine their cortisol reactivity. A questionnaire assessed the children's level of perceived stress. Results showed higher cortisol reactivity in children who perceived the task as more stressful. Furthermore, a quadratic relation between gaze aversion and cortisol was found which depended on the level of perceived stress: for children with low levels of perceived stress, cortisol reactivity was lowest with intermediate levels of gaze aversion, whereas for children with high levels of perceived stress cortisol reactivity was highest at intermediate levels of gaze aversion. The results suggest a modest association between subjective and physiological stress responses in 9- to 11-year-olds, and indicate that gaze aversion may play only a minor role as a behavioural coping strategy at this age

The relation between emotion regulation strategies and physiological stress responses in middle childhood

Item does not contain fulltextThe current study sought to examine whether children's spontaneous use of the emotion regulation strategies suppression and reappraisal during a psychosocial stress task was related to their cortisol and alpha-amylase responses to that task. Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase responses to a psychosocial stress task were assessed in 158 10-year-old children (83 girls). The children completed a self-report questionnaire measuring use of reappraisal and suppression during the task. Results showed overall increases in cortisol and alpha-amylase in response to the stressor, with higher cortisol reactivity in girls than in boys. With regard to emotion regulation, more use of suppression was related to lower cortisol reactivity in girls, and lower alpha-amylase reactivity and quicker alpha-amylase recovery in all children. The use of reappraisal was not related to the children's cortisol or alpha-amylase responses. The current study is the first to investigate the relation between the spontaneous use of reappraisal and suppression, and physiological stress responses to a psychosocial stressor in children. Our results indicate that reappraisal and suppression are used and can be measured even in 10-year-olds. At this age reappraisal appears ineffective at down-regulating physiological responses, while suppression was related to lower physiological responses. For cortisol reactivity there was a sex difference in the relation with suppression, indicating the importance of including sex as a moderator variable in research studying stress reactivity and its correlates in this age group

Does the arrival index predict physiological stress reactivity in children

Contains fulltext : 131492.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Knowledge about children's stress reactivity and its correlates is mostly based on one stress task, making it hard to assess the generalizability of the results. The development of an additional stress paradigm for children, that also limits stress exposure and test time, could greatly advance this field of research. Research in adults may provide a starting point for the development of such an additional stress paradigm, as changes in salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase (sAA) over a 1-h pre-stress period in the laboratory correlated strongly with subsequent reactivity to stress task (Balodis et al., 2010, Psychoneuroendocrinology 35: 1363-73). The present study examined whether such strong correlations could be replicated in 9-to 11-year-old children. Cortisol and sAA samples were collected from 158 children (83 girls) during a 2.5-h visit to the laboratory. This visit included a 1-h pre-stress period in which children performed some non-stressful tasks and relaxed before taking part in a psychosocial stress task (TSST-C). A higher cortisol arrival index was significantly and weakly correlated with a higher AUCg but unrelated to cortisol reactivity to the stressor. A higher sAA arrival index was significantly and moderately related to lower stress reactivity and to a lower AUCi. Children's personality and emotion regulation variables were unrelated to the cortisol and sAA arrival indices. The results of this study do not provide a basis for the development of an additional stress paradigm for children. Further replications in children and adults are needed to clarify the potential meaning of an arrival index