Psychology
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Item Psychological and Neurobiological Outcomes of Parent-Child Adrenocortical Concordance(2017) Merwin, Stephanie; Dougherty, Lea R; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Emerging work has examined parent-child concordance of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning (i.e., adrenocortical concordance) which reflects the attunement or association of the stress hormone cortisol between the parent and child. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is a critical aspect of HPA axis functioning that is sensitive to environmental factors and uniquely predicts psychopathology in youth. HPA axis functioning has also been linked to alterations in brain structure, specifically the hippocampus. The hippocampus is a critical brain region involved in learning and emotional processing and is sensitive to the parenting context, and undergoes change across early childhood. Despite these critical links between the parent-child dyad, HPA axis functioning, and hippocampal structure, no study has examined the longitudinal outcomes of adrenocortical concordance. The current study examined early parent-child adrenocortical concordance and its concurrent and longitudinal associations with parenting and children’s psychopathology and psychosocial functioning, as well as its longitudinal associations with children’s hippocampal structure in middle childhood. Participants included 142 parent-child dyads. Parents and children provided cortisol at Wave 1 when children were 3-5 years-old, and 98 dyads returned for the Wave 2 assessment three years later when children were 5-9 years-old. At Wave 1, parents and children provided salivary cortisol samples at waking, and 30 and 45 minutes post-waking across two days to assess the CAR. At Waves 1 and 2, child psychopathology and functioning were assessed through a parent-report clinical interview, and the parenting context was assessed through a laboratory-based parent-child interaction task. At Wave 2, a subsample of 51 children completed an anatomical magnetic resonance imaging assessment to measure hippocampal structure. Stronger parent-child concordance was associated with children’s poorer outcomes, namely increases in parental hostility from early to middle childhood, and children’s greater psychiatric symptoms and poorer psychosocial functioning in early and middle childhood. Moreover, parent- and child-level risk factors moderated several associations between stronger concordance and children’s poor outcomes. Parent-child concordance was not related to children’s hippocampal volumes in middle childhood. Importantly, our findings highlight adrenocortical concordance as a process underlying the parent-child relationship that plays a role in the development of psychopathology and functional impairment in children.Item Parental Hostility and Parent Stress Physiology: The Moderating Role of Child Effortful Control(2014) Merwin, Stephanie; Dougherty, Lea R.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the moderating role of child effortful control on the association between observed parental hostility and parents' cortisol awakening response (CAR), a critical index of stress system functioning. Participants included 99 medication-free parents and their preschool-aged children. Parents obtained salivary cortisol samples at waking, 30, and 45 minutes post-waking and at bedtime across two consecutive days. Parental hostility was assessed during an observational parent-child interaction task, and child effortful control was assessed using parent report. Observed parental hostility was associated with parents' lower cortisol levels at 30 and 45 minutes post-waking and lower CAR. Low levels of child effortful control were associated with parents' lower bedtime cortisol. Moreover, results demonstrated an interaction effect between parenting and child behavior on parent CAR. The findings highlight the significance of continued examination of the neurobiology of parenting with a focus on the interactive effects between parenting and child behavior.