A prospective study of diurnal cortisol responses to the social experience of school transition in four‐year‐old children: Anticipation, exposure, and adaptation

Abstract

This study examined psychosocial influences on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity in 105 4-year-old children transitioning to primary school. Measuring before, during, and after school transition over a period of up to 12 months, salivary cortisol was assessed on awakening and early evening. Parents reported child temperament and teachers recorded adaptive behavior. Whilst cortisol at awakening and early evening increased from baseline to school transition, effects were not significant. A significant decrease occurred between transition and follow-up and from baseline to follow-up for both awakening and evening cortisol. Poorer effortful control was associated with high morning and steeper diurnal slope of cortisol at transition whilst surgency/extroversion was associated individually with greater morning and evening cortisol at transition and adaptation. Greater increase in internalizing social isolation during the first 6 months of school in more surgent/extrovert children predicted higher morning and evening cortisol at follow-up. This study is the first to explore these adaptive relationships over a 12-month period and supports social isolation over time as a key element in developmental endocrine activation.

Panel manipulation in social stress testing: The Bath Experimental Stress Test for Children (BEST-C)

“…The complex nature of stressful events, referred to as "compound stressors" (Michaud et al, 2008) is also evidenced in prior life event stress influencing cortisol response to the acute stress of starting school (Turner-Cobb et al, 2008). Long-term memory of prior stressful events appears implicated in acute stress responses (Montirosso et al, 2013) and early life stress (before age 16 years) can negatively diminish acute laboratory stress responses in young adolescents (Lovallo, 2013).…”

Sex differences in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function in patients with chronic pain syndrome

“…Salivettes were thawed and centrifuged at 863g for 15 min and then subjected to an in-house radioimmunoassay in sodium citrate/sodium orthophosphate buffer at pH3 (Jessop et al 2001;Turner-Cobb et al 2008). Saliva samples were diluted 1:1 in buffer and assayed in duplicate with radiolabelled 125 iodinecortisol and antiserum.…”

Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity and upper respiratory tract infection in young children transitioning to primary school

“…Saliva was assayed for cortisol by in-house radioimmunoassay (Jessop et al 2001;Turner-Cobb et al 2008). Saliva samples were diluted 1:1 in sodium citrate/sodium orthophosphate buffer at pH 3 and assayed in duplicate with radiolabelled iodine 125-cortisol and antiserum.…”