Emotion regulation moderates the association between parent and child hair cortisol concentrations

Abstract

Successful emotion regulation facilitates children's coping with everyday stress. It develops rapidly in the early preschool period. However, no work has been done to investigate the potential buffering role of emotion regulation from cumulative physiological effects of stress. In this study, we examined hair cortisol concentration (HCC), an early marker of chronic physiological stress, socioeconomic status (SES), parental sensitivity, and emotion regulation and reactivity in a sample of 3.5‐year‐old children (N = 86). Emotion regulation and emotional reactivity were independent of child HCC. However, emotion regulation moderated the relationship between parent and child HCC. For children with better emotion regulation, there was no association between parent and child HCC, suggesting that emotion regulation skills buffered the transgenerational effects of chronic physiological stress. Emotional reactivity moderated the relationship between SES and child HCC, and attenuated the association between parental sensitivity and child HCC. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that children who were less emotionally reactive were less susceptible to their environments. Results provide support that child emotion regulation and emotional reactivity can reduce or strengthen the relationship between established risk factors and levels of chronic physiological stress in early childhood.

Maternal expressive suppression moderates the relations between maternal and child hair cortisol

“…As a notable exception, Oullete and colleagues found a significant interaction between maternal HCC and negative parenting styles (Ouelette et al., 2015) Specifically, relations between maternal and child hair HCCs were more robust when parenting is harsher, consistent with research demonstrating that maternal HCC and infant saliva cortisol were significantly associated among mothers who were more intrusive (Tarullo et al, 2017). Further, maternal–child hair cortisol synchrony was attenuated when child emotion regulation was high (Kao, Tuladhar, Meyer, & Tarullo, 2019). In contrast, high maternal responsiveness/sensitivity and low child ADHD symptoms strengthen mother–child hair cortisol synchrony (Schloß et al., 2018).…”

Cortisol and socioeconomic status in early childhood: A multidimensional assessment

“…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).…”

Examining the role of socioeconomic status and temperament in the hair cortisol levels of infants

“…Furthermore, when we tested the moderator role of negative emotionality, we found that infants who scored high in negative temperament had low HCC if they were growing up in poorer households, but they had higher HCC if they were growing up in relatively better home environments. A recent study found an opposite pattern in preschool children, where children who showed higher emotional reactivity had higher HCC in the lower‐SES environment (Kao et al., 2019). The reason for this difference might be the age differences between that sample and our own, but more importantly, their SES range was wider (including both low‐SES and high‐SES participants), and 82% of their participants had at least a college degree, while our sample had a much narrower range.…”

“…We hypothesized that the SES index and HCC would be negatively associated, and it was also expected that this association would be higher for children with negative temperament. (Bates, Salsberry, & Ford, 2017;Gray et al, 2018;Vliegenthart et al, 2016), and preschoolers (Kao, Tuladhar, Meyer, & Tarullo, 2019). Vaghri et al (2013) noted that the education level of the parents, one of the SES indicators, was negatively associated with HCC in younger children while family income was not.…”

“…The literature about hair cortisol and its association with environmental and individual factors is limited for infants and mixed for older children. There are studies reporting a negative association between family SES (including both neighborhood SES and maternal education level) and HCC in children, adolescents (Bates, Salsberry, & Ford, 2017; Gray et al., 2018; Vliegenthart et al., 2016), and preschoolers (Kao, Tuladhar, Meyer, & Tarullo, 2019). Vaghri et al.…”