Parental Depression, Parenting, and Cortisol Reactivity in Preschoolers

dc.contributor.advisorDougherty, Lea Ren_US
dc.contributor.authorTolep, Marissaen_US
dc.contributor.departmentPsychologyen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2012-07-10T05:35:26Z
dc.date.available2012-07-10T05:35:26Z
dc.date.issued2011en_US
dc.description.abstractThis study systematically examined individual differences in stress sensitivity as a vulnerability marker for depression in young children. We collected five salivary cortisol samples from 142 preschool-age children who were exposed to a laboratory stressor paradigm. Parents (<italic>N</italic> = 88 with family history of depression) completed clinical interviews and an observational parent-child interaction task. We found that hostile parenting behavior moderated the relation between maternal depression and offspring cortisol. Specifically, the offspring of mothers who had a history of depression during the child's life and whose mothers exhibited hostility evidenced increasing cortisol levels in response to the stressor paradigm. Conversely, the offspring of mothers who had no history of depression and whose mothers exhibited hostility evidenced decreasing cortisol levels in response to the stressor. The data highlight the critical role of the early caregiving environment on offspring's developing stress system and add to our understanding of transmission of depression risk.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/12791
dc.subject.pqcontrolledClinical psychologyen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledDevelopmental psychologyen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledCortisol Reactivityen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledDepressionen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledOffspringen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledParentingen_US
dc.titleParental Depression, Parenting, and Cortisol Reactivity in Preschoolersen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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