Biological sensitivity to context: A test of the hypothesized U-shaped relation between early adversity and stress responsivity

Abstract

We conducted signal detection analyses to test for curvilinear, U-shaped relations between early experiences of adversity and heightened physiological responses to challenge, as proposed by biological sensitivity to context theory. Based on analysis of an ethnically diverse sample of 338 kindergarten children (4–6 years old) and their families, we identified levels and types of adversity that, singly and interactively, predicted high (top 25%) and low (bottom 25%) rates of stress reactivity. The results offered support for the hypothesized U-shaped curve and conceptually replicated and extended the work of Ellis, Essex, and Boyce (2005). Across both sympathetic and adrenocortical systems, a disproportionate number of children growing up under conditions characterized by either low or high adversity (as indexed by restrictive parenting, family stress, and family economic condition) displayed heightened stress reactivity, compared with peers growing up under conditions of moderate adversity. Finally, as hypothesized by the adaptive calibration model, a disproportionate number of children who experienced exceptionally stressful family conditions displayed blunted cortisol reactivity to stress.

Do more stress and lower family economic status increase vulnerability to suicidal ideation? Evidence of a U-shaped relationship in a large cross-sectional sample of South Korean adolescents

“…Such a quadratic pattern in stress inoculation among adolescents or young adults is reported for global distress, functional impairment, life satisfaction, post-traumatic stress symptoms [37], and depressive symptoms [38]. These findings are consistent with repeated findings from laboratory studies of dampened physiological reactivity among adolescents with moderate childhood adversity and heightened reactivity among those with low or high childhood adversity [39][40][41][42]. Research on adolescent/young adult life adversity and physiological stress reactivity have also reported a U-shaped pattern by different levels of family socioeconomic status [43], suggesting that ecological hardships during childhood contribute to or at least are correlated with psychological steeling.…”

Genes and environments, development and time

“…Furthermore, while parametric, linear, tests of association are the familiar and established territory in the analysis of G-E interplay, nonlinearities are legion within biological systems and often account for the robustness of phenotypes to perturbations in environmental exposures or genetic variation (61). For example, the relation of early adversity experiences to physiological sensitivity to stressors has been characterized as a Ushaped curve, in which children reared in both exceptionally highand low-adversity contexts had the highest levels of autonomic and adrenocortical reactivity (62). More generally, GWASs on complex quantitative traits have increasingly turned to examine nonlinearities associated with G-G and G-E interactions (63).…”

Stress and Learning in Pupils: Neuroscience Evidence and its Relevance for Teachers

“…Differences in stress response may also be transmitted between generations by environmental pathways. For example, epigenetic research has suggested that a mother experiencing stress might condition her offspring either to a metabolism that is more alert to danger, i.e., a more easily triggered stress response ready for fight or flight (Babenko, Kovalchuk, & Metz, 2015), or one with a blunted stress response, i.e., insufficient arousal (Shakiba, Ellis, Bush, & Boyce, 2019).…”