Maternal Correlates of Children’s Stress Functioning Following a Major Natural Disaster

Abstract

Concordant assessments of psychological functioning, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), and cortisol activity were taken for children (n = 28, 6-10 yrs) and their mothers two months after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina and living in a relocation camp. Multilevel regression models revealed that the psychological functioning of the displaced children did not differ from that of demographically matched controls (n = 19 children), but the displaced group had higher sAA activity and lower cortisol levels. Compared to control mothers, displaced mothers showed higher sAA activity; greater symptoms of depression, distress, and anxiety; and lower self-esteem. Maternal psychological functioning was related to children's endocrine activity. The results suggest that pervasive stress exposure may be associated with unique psychobiological distress regulation for mother-child dyads.

Beyond catecholamines: Measuring autonomic responses to psychosocial context

“…sAA is the only salivary autonomic biomarker. Although sAA has received surprisingly little attention from human biologists or anthropologists (but see DeCaro, ; Lynn et al, ; Lynn et al, ; Ponzi et al, in press; Vigil et al, ), it is a common marker of the stress response in psychobiology research, especially in experimental designs (Granger et al, ; Nater and Rohleder, ; Nater et al, ; Rohleder and Nater, ). sAA is even more appealing for ambulatory study designs, because research subjects can be coached to collect a series of samples on their own.…”

“…Psychobiologists have documented rapid elevations in sAA following a wide array of acute cognitive, physical, emotional and psychosocial challenges in laboratory contexts (Doane and Van Lenten, ; Nater and Rohleder, ; Nater et al, ; Petrakova et al, ; Schumacher et al, ; Strahler et al, ). Other researchers have evaluated sAA responses to chronic stress or to shifting socioecological contexts in everyday life (Adam et al, ; Lynn et al, ; O'Donnell et al, ; Schumacher et al, ; Thoma et al, ; Vigil et al, ; Wolf et al, ). There is no consistent evidence that average sAA activity functions well as a summative marker of chronic stress.…”

Research Methods in Child Disaster Studies: A Review of Studies Generated by the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks; the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami; and Hurricane Katrina

“…This is because the reported differences may have been due to the wide variation in the time of day that the saliva samples were collected (the cortisol index used was a single assessment, derived from two samplings 60–90 min apart, with collection times varying from 11 am to 7 pm). Similarly, in another study conducted 2 months after Hurricane Katrina, it is not clear that the time of cortisol collection was matched in the exposed participants who were living in a relocation camp and the control group (Vigil et al 2009), making meaningful interpretation related to cortisol differences impossible. In this study, however, Vigil et al (2009) also demonstrated that while the displaced children did not differ from the demographically-matched controls in psychological functioning, the children had higher salivary alpha-amylase activity relative to the controls.…”

“…Similarly, in another study conducted 2 months after Hurricane Katrina, it is not clear that the time of cortisol collection was matched in the exposed participants who were living in a relocation camp and the control group (Vigil et al 2009), making meaningful interpretation related to cortisol differences impossible. In this study, however, Vigil et al (2009) also demonstrated that while the displaced children did not differ from the demographically-matched controls in psychological functioning, the children had higher salivary alpha-amylase activity relative to the controls. Mothers also had higher salivary alpha-amylase activity relative to maternal controls as well as greater depression, anxiety, and distress.…”

“…Indeed, even the consistency of children’s memories of the events they reported having experienced during a disaster has been unstudied. Studies have incorporated long-term memory into outcome measures in the form of inquiries about the child’s experiences with intrusive disaster-related imagery (e.g., Calderoni et al 2006; Hendricks and Bornstein 2007; Salloum and Overstreet 2008; Sprung 2008; Sprung and Harris 2010; Vigil and Geary 2008, 2009; Vigil et al 2009, 2010). Intrusive imagery may be measured as an element of memory; however, repetitive, bothersome thoughts or ideas about a disaster do not necessarily reflect one’s actual exposure to, or experience with, the event.…”