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Understanding the unfolding of stress regulation in infants

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posted on 2023-06-09, 01:34 authored by Heidemarie K Laurent, Gordon Harold, Leslie Leve, Katherine H Shelton, Stephanie H M Van Goozen
Early identification of problems with psychosocial stress regulation is important for supporting mental and physical health. However, we currently lack knowledge about when reliable individual differences in stress-responsive physiology emerge and which aspects of maternal behavior determine the unfolding of infants' stress responses. Knowledge of these processes is further limited by analytic approaches that do not account for multiple levels of within- and between-family effects. In a low-risk sample (n = 100 dyads), we observed infant cortisol and mother/infant behavior during regular play and stress sessions longitudinally from age 1 to 3, and used a three-level model to separately examine variability in infant cortisol trajectories within sessions, across years, and across infants. Stable individual differences in hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis regulation were observed in the first 3 years of life. Infants of less sensitive and more intrusive mothers manifested stress sensitization, that is, elevated cortisol levels during and following stress exposure, a profile related to behavioral distress. These findings have important practical implications, suggesting that children at risk for long-term stress dysregulation may be identified in the earliest years of life.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Development and Psychopathology

ISSN

0954-5794

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Issue

4pt2

Volume

28

Page range

1431-1440

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-06-08

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2016-06-08

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-06-08

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