Correlates of hair cortisol concentrations in disadvantaged young children

Abstract

Children from highly disadvantaged families tend to experience worse health, educational, and job outcomes than less disadvantaged peers. However, the mechanisms underlying these relationships remain to be explicated. In particular, few studies have investigated the relationships between the psychosocial influences that children are exposed to early in life and longer term cortisol output. This study aims to contribute to the literature by exploring how disadvantaged young children's experiences of family adversity, and parenting and family functioning, are related to their long‐term cortisol levels. A sample of 60 children (26 males, mean = 4.25 years, SD = 1.68) and their mothers (mean = 34.18 years, SD = 7.11) from a low‐income population took part in a single assessment. Mothers completed questionnaires on the family environment, parenting practices, and child behaviour. Children provided a hair sample for cortisol assay and anthropometric measures. A parsimonious multivariate regression model (including potential predictors identified by a selection algorithm) was used to investigate the correlates of hair cortisol concentration (HCC) in children. Higher levels of social exclusion, being male, and younger age were each associated with higher HCC. Maternal nurturing and emotion coaching were associated with lower HCC. Findings suggest that chronic stress may underlie relationships between adversity and its long‐term effects and that HCC offers a promising method for examining chronic stress in children and evaluating interventions by which it can be ameliorated.

Cortisol and socioeconomic status in early childhood: A multidimensional assessment

“…Our hypothesis that parental sensitivity would explain the effects of SES on child cortisol function was not supported. This expectation was informed by prior research linking lower parental sensitivity to higher child cortisol output, as indexed by both salivary and hair measures (Blair et al, 2011; Johnson et al, 2018; Simmons et al, 2019; Zalewski et al, 2012). In our sample, consistent with this prior work, lower parental sensitivity was associated with higher child HCC and higher bedtime SCC.…”

“…A study of toddlers in low-income households reported that they had higher basal SCC if they were insecurely attached (Johnson, Mliner, Depasquale, Troy, & Gunnar, 2018). In two recent studies of preschool children, lower parent sensitivity was linked to higher child HCC (Kao, Tuladhar, Meyer, & Tarullo, 2019; Simmons et al, 2019). In another study of preschool children, parental negativity mediated the association between poverty and flatter diurnal slope (Zalewski, Lengua, Kiff, & Fisher, 2012).…”

Biological sensitivity to context in Pakistani preschoolers: Hair cortisol and family wealth are interactively associated with girls’ cognitive skills

“…countries (Ling et al, 2019;Simmons et al, 2019). Although we cannot determine statistical significance of these mean-level differences because cross-assay and cross-ethnic comparisons can be methodologically biased (Ling et al, 2019;Rippe et al, 2016; (Gunnar & Vazquez, 2001;Koss, Hostinar, Donzella, & Gunnar, 2014;Zalewski, Lengua, Kiff, & Fisher, 2012).…”

“…Furthermore, studies from high-income samples have found both mean-level sex differences in HCCs and some sex-specific links between HCCs and measures of children's development. Specifically, young boys have higher HCCs compared to girls (Dettenborn, Tietze, Kirschbaum, & Stalder, 2012;Gerber et al, 2017;Grunau et al, 2013;Maurer et al, 2016;Rippe et al, 2016;Simmons et al, 2019).…”

“…Second, sexspecific disparities in experiences and resources in LMICs (Escueta et al, 2014) may be differentially embedded in boys' and girls' stress physiology (Tarullo et al, 2017). Third, previous studies showed sex differences in mean levels of HCCs, and these differences could confound observed associations between HCCs and cognitive development (Gerber et al, 2017;Simmons et al, 2019). Finally, associations between HCCs and children's development have been observed to vary by sex (Pauli-Pott et al, 2017;Schloß et al, 2018).…”