Does socioeconomic status mediate racial differences in the cortisol response in middle childhood?

Abstract

Objective: Race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status are both associated with stress physiology as indexed by cortisol. The present study tested the extent to which racial/ethnic disparities in cortisol reactivity are explained by socioeconomic status. Method: The sample consisted of 296 racially and socioeconomically diverse children ages 8–11 (47% boys). Mothers reported on children’s stressors and socioeconomic status; salivary cortisol levels were assessed before and after the Trier Social Stress Test. Results: Results demonstrated that racial group differences in cortisol reactivity were partially accounted for by differences in socioeconomic status, but racial group differences in cortisol recovery were not. Conclusions: These findings suggest that cumulative effects of stress and disadvantage may result in differences in stress response physiology as early as middle childhood, and that race-specific mechanisms account for additional variance in cortisol reactivity and recovery.

Basal and reactivity levels of cortisol in one-month-old infants born to overweight or obese mothers from an ethnically and racially diverse, low-income community sample

“…First, given the higher level of stress often present in low-SES households, the infants in our study may simply have not been as aroused by a research assessment as those from lower-risk households, either due to variation in prenatal programming of the HPA-axis or postnatal environmental differences. Our results are also consistent with prior literature finding an association between low SES and/or parental conflict and low basal cortisol and/or blunted cortisol reactivity in toddlers and children (Sturge-Apple, Davies, Cicchetti, & Manning, 2012; Tackett et al, 2017). Alternatively, about half of the Jansen et al review studies used a heel stick or an inoculation to stress infants which is thought to produce higher initial and peak cortisol levels than, for example, “learning event” studies (e.g., the Still Face Paradigm (SFP) (Thompson et al, 2015, p. 41), which may have inflated those means.…”

“…Keenan et al (2002; 2007) based upon the same sample, used the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) (a measure similar to the one used in the present study, but more cumbersome and harder to administer) and a heel stick to stress infants within the first two days of life, but data collected from infants so close to the stressful experience of birth raises the possibility of confounded results (Mears, McAuliffe, Grimes, & Morrison, 2004). Although the majority of studies examined infant basal cortisol, since 2010 a number of other major studies or reviews about infant cortisol reactivity have been published focusing on a variety of variables including preterm infants (Morelius et al, 2016), sex differences in childhood (van der Voorn, Hollanders, Ket, Rotteveel, & Finken, 2017), adverse experiences (Hunter et al, 2011), mother-infant adrenocortical attunement (Hibel et al, 2015), or SES and race/ethnicity in older children (Tackett, Herzhoff, Smack, Reardon, & Adam, 2017).…”

The p Factor and the n Factor: Associations Between the General Factors of Psychopathology and Neuroticism in Children

“…Sample 1 is originally described in Tackett (2011), and all families from the original sample were included here. Sample 2 is originally described in Tackett, Herzhoff, Smack, Reardon, and Adam (2017), and all but one family (missing all relevant variables) from the original sample were included here. Participants were 711 primary caregivers of 695 7-to-13-year-old children (mean age = 9.87 years; 48% male).…”

Inhibitory control moderates the quadratic association between resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia and prosocial behaviors in children

“…Participants were from families with middle to upper-middle socioeconomic status (SES), as 80.9% of the fathers and 75.9% of the mothers obtained a bachelor's degree or above and 58.2% of the families had a household income of more than 10,000¥ per month. In accordance with prior studies (Cohen, Doyle, & Baum, 2006;Schulting, Malone, & Dodge, 2005;Tackett, Herzhoff, Smack, Reardon, & Adam, 2017), participants' SES was calculated by summing the standard scores for the following three variables: (a) father's education (M = 4.80, SD = 0.75), (b) mother's education (M = 4.72, SD = 0.76), and (c) household income (M = 3.64, SD = 1.00).…”