The deleterious effects of poverty on mental and physical health are routinely argued to operate, at least in part, via dysregulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, although empirical examinations connecting poverty with HPA axis functioning are rare. Research on the effects of timing of poverty is a particularly neglected aspect of this relationship. This study uses 15 years of prospective data from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to assess how exposure to poverty during infancy, childhood, and adolescence is related to awakening cortisol (n = 826), a marker of HPA axis functioning. Among female participants, poverty exposure in infancy and adolescence, but not childhood, was negatively associated with awakening cortisol. Poverty exposure was unrelated to cortisol among male participants. The importance of timing and gender differences are discussed along with directions for future research.
Keywordspoverty; biomarkers; allostatic load; adolescents; psychosocial How does poverty in early life influence hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning? The answer to this question has important implications for how social disparities in physical and mental health arise. Two core themes help frame this study: (1) poverty is a dynamic experience that must be viewed in terms of timing, and (2) the stress of living in poverty can have long-term influences on the HPA axis. The overarching goal of this project is to investigate how early-life poverty exposure is related to awakening cortisol, a marker of HPA axis functioning, in adolescence. This study tests if poverty exposure during infancy is more detrimental than exposure during childhood or adolescence. Moreover, this study also highlights the importance of gender in these relationships.Early-life poverty can have harmful consequences that proliferate across the life course. For instance, childhood poverty is associated with poor mental and physical health, diminished cognitive and memory function, and diminished life chances, including socioeconomic attainment (Evans and Kim 2007;Evans and Schamberg 2009;Massey 2004
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Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript detrimental effects, coupled with high child poverty rates, present a pressing need to understand how poverty exposure alters HPA axis functioning. The Great Recession of 2008 and its lingering aftermath have greatly exacerbated the already pernicious problem of child poverty and point toward a future when a sizable portion of the U.S. adult population will have experienced poverty in early life (Macartney 2011). Little is known about how this will affect population health, however. An understanding of the enduring effects of early-life poverty will be of vital importance for future health policy.
HPA AXIS FUNCTIONING AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF MENTAL HEALTHStress research has expanded precipitously in recent years because of its potential to elucidate the origins of health disparities (McEwen 2004;Pearlin et al. 2005;...