Allostasis and the development of internalizing and externalizing problems: Changing relations with physiological systems across adolescence

Abstract

Allostasis, or the maintenance of stability through physiological change, refers to the process by which individuals adjust to the continually changing demands that are put upon somatic activity by salient events. Bauer and colleagues proposed that allostasis could be detected through patterns of the joint reactivity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis system under stressful conditions. We examined the associations between ANS and HPA reactivity and the development of externalizing and internalizing problems over 2 years in a sample of 215 adolescents. The interactions of ANS and HPA reactivity were contemporaneously associated with, and longitudinally predictive of, adolescents' emotional and behavioral problems. Adolescents with symmetrical high reactivity across systems had more internalizing and fewer externalizing problems initially. Over time, both symmetrical and asymmetrical reactivity predicted increasing internalizing problems in girls, depending on the measure of ANS activity that was examined, heart rate, or blood pressure reactivity. Implications for the understanding of allostasis and the dynamic nature of the relations between multiple physiological regulatory systems and adolescents' developing psychopathology are discussed.

A dual‐axis approach to understanding neuroendocrine development

“…What are the contexts in which the functional response would be for dual-axis activation rather than inhibition? Challenging the prevailing notion of mutual inhibition has served researchers interested in understanding autonomic nervous system function exceptionally well (Beauchaine, 2001; Hastings et al, 2011) and here we put forward a similar cautious challenge that probing the concept mutual inhibition is of value for HPA and HPG axes.…”

Towards a Heuristic Research Model Linking Early Socioeconomic Adversity and Youth Cumulative Disease Risk: An Integrative Review

“…However, exorbitant physiological stress responses (e.g., the excessive production of hormones through the HPA axis and SAM reactivity) are contemporaneously and longitudinally associated with adolescent emotional and behavioral problems (path 2d in Fig. 1) (Hastings et al 2011;Seeman et al 2010). In particular, changes in hormone levels associated with puberty have negative behavioral and mental health outcomes for adolescents (Blakemore et al 2010), and variations in cortisol levels are linked to adolescent alcohol use (Ruttle et al 2015).…”

Coordination of cortisol response to social evaluative threat with autonomic and inflammatory responses is moderated by stress appraisals and affect

“…Contemporary theorists now speculate that change in any one system, studied individually, may offer an incomplete picture of risk/resilience processes, and it is through the study of coordinated change across systems that insights into paths from adversity exposure to negative mental and physical health outcomes will be revealed (e.g., Bauer, Quas, & Boyce, 2002; Hastings et al, 2011). As used here, “coordination” refers to the linkage of activation across biological systems, which may be present in the sense of similar absolute levels of activation ( average level coordination ) and/or alignment of increases and decreases in activation over time ( matched phase coordination ; see Laurent, Ablow, & Measelle, 2011 for further explanation and illustration).…”