A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Child-Reported Maternal Warmth on Cortisol Stress Response 15 Years After Parental Divorce

Abstract

Objective Childhood parental divorce is associated with an increased risk of behavioral and physical health problems. Alterations in adrenocortical activity may be a mechanism in this relation. Parent-child relationships have been linked to cortisol regulation in children exposed to adversity, but prospective research is lacking. We examined maternal warmth in adolescence as a predictor of young adults’ cortisol stress response 15 years after parental divorce. Methods Participants included 240 youth from recently divorced families. Mother and child reports of maternal warmth were assessed at 6 time points across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Offspring salivary cortisol was measured in young adulthood before and after a social stress task. Structural equation modeling was used to predict cortisol response from maternal warmth across early and late adolescence. Results Higher child-reported maternal warmth in early adolescence predicted higher child-reported maternal warmth in late adolescence (std. regression = .45, SE = .065, p < .01), which predicted lower cortisol response to a challenging interpersonal task in young adulthood (std. regression = −.20, SE = .094, p = .031). Neither mother-reported warmth in early adolescence nor late adolescence was significantly related to offspring cortisol response in young adulthood. Conclusions Results suggest that for children from divorced families, a warm mother-child relationship post-divorce and across development, as perceived by the child, may promote efficient biological regulation later in life.

Midlife self-reported social support as a buffer against premature mortality risks associated with childhood abuse

“…The observed findings converge with a substantial body of work demonstrating the salubrious effects of supportive relationships in the face of early adversity on psychosocial, behavioral, and biological functioning 10 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 27 , 28 . However, many of these studies focus on positive relationships in relatively close proximity to the adversity.…”

“…Positive social relationships marked by high levels of warmth and support have been shown to mitigate the associations between a range of early life stressors (e.g., socioeconomic disadvantage, neglect, loss of a parent, and parental divorce) and alterations in biological functioning thought to contribute to the development and progression of disease 10 – 13 . Many fewer studies have focused specifically on abuse, but the few that have similarly point to supportive relationships as an effective buffer.…”

Father–adolescent engagement in shared activities: Effects on cortisol stress response in young adulthood.

“…Dysregulated HPA activity is associated with a range of pathologies including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, and depression (Seeman & McEwen, 1996). In contrast, positive parental behaviors (e.g., warmth) have been associated with more adaptive HPA activity in response to stress (Luecken, Hagan, Wolchik, Sandler & Tein, 2016). …”

“…Luecken, Kraft, & Hagan (2009) found that college students’ retrospective reports of negative and high conflict relationships in their family of origin were associated with lower cortisol response to a challenging interpersonal task compared to those who reported positive relationship quality. Among prospective studies, greater levels of maternal warmth at age five predicted reduced HPA reactivity to a stress task at age seven (Kuhlman, Olson, & Lopez-Duran, 2014), and more maternal warmth in early adolescence predicted lower cortisol response to a challenging interpersonal task 15 years later for children from divorced families (Luecken et al, 2016). While many studies focus on maternal parenting only, other studies have combined maternal and paternal influences into a single parenting variable, or looked at the overall family environment to predict cortisol (Luecken, Kraft, & Hagan, 2009; Marsman et al, 2012).…”

Parental warmth interacts with several genes to affect executive function components: a genome-wide environment interaction study

“…Harsh parenting was found to be associated with poor EF in children [10,13,14], perhaps because environmental stress acts through the HPA axis's activity to influence behavior [9]. Indeed, harsh parenting or low PW has been linked to higher cortisol response [15] and poorer EF. However, how parenting or PW specifically interacts with genes to affect EF is not well understood.…”