OBJECTIVE: This random assignment experimental study examined the intersection of children’s coping and physiologic stress reactivity and recovery patterns in a sample of preadolescent boys and girls. METHOD: A sample of 82 fourth and fifth grade (Mage = 10.59 years old) child-parent dyads participated in the present study. Children participated in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-C) and were randomly assigned to one of two post-TSST-C experimental coping conditions; behavioral distraction and cognitive avoidance. Children’s characteristic ways of coping were examined as moderators of the effect of experimental coping condition on cortisol reactivity and recovery patterns. RESULTS: Multi-level modeling analyses indicated that children’s characteristic coping and experimental coping condition interacted to predict differential cortisol recovery patterns. Children who characteristically engaged in primary control engagement coping strategies were able to more quickly down-regulate salivary cortisol when primed to distract themselves than when primed to avoid and vice versa. The opposite pattern was true for characteristic disengagement coping in the context of coping condition, suggesting that regulatory fit between children’s characteristic ways of coping and cues from their coping environment may lead to more and less adaptive physiologic recovery profiles. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides some of the first evidence that coping “gets under the skin” and that children’s characteristic ways of coping may constrain or enhance a child’s ability to make use of environmental coping resources.

Understanding co‐activation patterns of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis (HPA) and sympathetic adrenal medullary (SAM) during early adolescence may illuminate risk for development of internalizing and externalizing problems. The present study advances empirical work on the topic by examining SAM‐HPA co‐activation during both the reactivity and recovery phases of the stress response following acute stress exposure. Fourth and fifth grade boys and girls (N = 149) provided cortisol and alpha‐amylase via saliva at seven times throughout a 95‐min assessment in which they were administered the modified Trier Social Stress Test. Parents reported on adolescents’ life stress, pubertal development, medication use, and externalizing problems. Adolescents reported their own internalizing symptoms. Multiple linear regressions tested both direct and interactive effects of SAM and HPA reactivity and recovery on internalizing and externalizing problems. Results from these analyses showed that whereas SAM and HPA reactivity interacted to predict internalizing symptoms, it was their interaction during the recovery phase that predicted externalizing. Concurrent high SAM and HPA reactivity scores predicted high levels of internalizing and concurrently low SAM and HPA recovery scores predicted high levels of externalizing. Implications of the findings for further study and clinical application are discussed.

Using a longitudinal mediation framework and a low-income sample, this study had two aims: 1) to model bi-directional associations between parent academic expectations and child academic outcomes from first through fifth grade, and 2) to explore three mediators of parental influence: parent involvement in child schooling, child learning behaviors, and child perceived academic competence. Participants included 356 children and their caregivers (89% mothers) recruited from Head Start centers (58% European American; 25% African American; 17% Latino). At each time point (grades 1, 2, 3, 5), parents rated their academic expectations, teachers rated parent involvement and child learning behaviors, and children rated their self-perceptions of their academic competence. Bi-directional longitudinal associations emerged between parent academic expectations and child academic outcomes. Child learning behaviors mediated this association from first to third grade, whereas child perceived academic competence mediated from second to fifth grade. Parallel cross-lagged models replicated these findings with child academic outcomes assessed using a test of reading achievement and teacher ratings of academic performance.

This study explored patterns of change in the REDI (Research-based Developmentally Informed) Parent program (REDI-P), designed to help parents support child learning at the transition into kindergarten. Participants were 200 prekindergarten children attending Head Start (55% European-American, 26% African American, 19% Latino, 56% male, Mage = 4.45 years, SD = .29) and their primary caregivers, who were randomized to a 16-session home-visiting intervention (REDI-P) or a control group. Extending beyond a prior study documenting intervention effects on parenting behaviors and child kindergarten outcomes, this study assessed the impact of REDI-P on parent academic expectations, and then explored the degree to which intervention gains in three areas of parenting (parent-child interactive reading, parent-child conversations, parent academic expectations) predicted child outcomes in kindergarten (controlling for baseline values and a set of child and family characteristics). Results showed that REDI-P promoted significant gains in parent academic expectations, which in turn mediated intervention gains in child emergent literacy skills and self-directed learning. Results suggest a need to attend to the beliefs parents hold about their child’s academic potential, as well as their behavioral support for child learning, when designing interventions to enhance the school success of children in low-income families.

This study examined whether perceived attachment security (i.e., perceptions of caregivers as responsive, available, and open to communication during times of need) and effortful coping work in concert to buffer against uncontrollable life event effects on hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) response patterns in preadolescent boys and girls ( N = 121, mean age = 10.60 years). Children completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and were immediately thereafter exposed to one of two randomly assigned coping conditions: distraction and avoidance. Piecewise growth multilevel modeling of children’s salivary cortisol levels over the course of the experimental protocol suggested that uncontrollable life events in the year prior were associated with exaggerated cortisol reactivity, though this pattern was buffered against by children’s secure attachment beliefs. Furthermore, perceived attachment security, uncontrollable life event, and coping condition interactive effects on cortisol recovery emerged. As expected, distraction supported efficient cortisol recovery for those uncontrollable stress-exposed children with secure beliefs, and avoidance worked in this fashion for those with insecure beliefs. Findings point to perceived attachment security as a putative buffer of stress-exposed preadolescents’ HPA reactivity and possible contributor to regulatory fit, informing how specific coping skills work or backfire in supporting these children’s HPA recovery efficiency.