Paul D. Hastings

Adrenocortical activity in at-risk and normally developing adolescents: individual differences in salivary cortisol basal levels, diurnal variation, and responses to social challenges.

The purpose of this study was to examine adrenocortical activity (basal, diurnal variation, and responses to social stressors) in adolescents at risk for psychopathology. Salivary cortisol levels were examined in normally developing and at-risk youth with internalizing and externalizing symptoms ranging from subclinical to clinical levels. Adolescents showed expected patterns of diurnal variation, with high early morning cortisol levels and a pattern of decline throughout the day. Females showed higher midday and late afternoon levels than males, and these patterns interacted with risk status. Internalizing problems sometimes were associated with gradual rather than steep declines in basal cortisol production. Both immediate and delayed cortisol reactivity to a social performance stressor were associated with internalizing symptoms. There was no evidence of relations between externalizing problems and underarousal of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system. These and other results suggest that gender is an important moderating factor linking psychopathology. development, and context with HPA axis functioning in adolescence.

The Transaction between Parents’ Perceptions of their Children’s Shyness and their Parenting Styles

In recent years, researchers have examined factors that “determine” parenting beliefs, styles, and behaviours. One potential determinant of parenting is the child him/herself. Child characteristics, such as temperament, have been cited as evocative influences on parenting beliefs and behaviours. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal relations between children’s social wariness/inhibition and parents’ beliefs about how to best socialise their children. Questionnaire data on child temperament and parenting practices were collected from the parents (mothers and fathers) of sixty 2-year-olds; identical data were collected 2 years later. Observations of inhibited behaviour were taken at two years. Results indicated that few differences existed between mothers’ and fathers’ expressed parenting styles at ages 2 and 4 years. Second, parental perceptions of child shyness at age 2 were: (a) stable to age 4; and (b) predicted a lack of encouragement of independence at age 4. Third, parents’ expressed lack of encouragement of independence, although stable from 2 to 4 years, failed to predict child shyness at age 4. The findings support the conjecture that young children’s dispositional characteristics predict subsequent maternal and paternal behaviour.

Applying the polyvagal theory to children's emotion regulation: Social context, socialization, and adjustment

Effective emotion regulation is essential for childrens positive development. Polyvagal theory provides a framework for understanding how parasympathetic regulation of cardiac activity contributes to childrens adaptive versus maladaptive functioning. Maintenance of cardiac respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) under social challenge should support emotion regulation and behavioral adjustment. Childrens effective parasympathetic regulation and behavioral adjustment should be supported by appropriate parental socialization. These proposals were evaluated in a short-term longitudinal study of 94 preschool-aged children. Parenting and basal RSA were measured at home, then 6-10 months later behavioral adjustment and RSA in lab baseline and socially challenging contexts were measured. Children with relatively higher RSA in social challenge than at baseline (DeltaRSA) had fewer internalizing problems (IP) and externalizing problems (EP), and better behavioral self-regulation (SR). Mothers who used more negative control had children with lower DeltaRSA, more IP and EP, and less SR. Structural equation modeling showed that vagal regulation mediated associations between maternal negative control and childrens adjustment; maternal negative control did not predict EP or SR after accounting for DeltaRSA. Associations were consistent across boys and girls, with one exception: Higher DeltaRSA was significantly associated with fewer EP in boys only. These findings suggest that the practical significance of physiological regulation might be best revealed in ecologically valid procedures, and that childrens physiological mechanisms of emotion regulation are shaped by their experiences of parental socialization.

Salivary testosterone diurnal variation and psychopathology in adolescent males and females: Individual differences and developmental effects

Individual differences in salivary testosterone were examined in 213 adolescents (106 boys, 107 girls; mean age = 13.66 years) in relation to externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. Self- and parent-report measures of behavior problems and psychiatric symptoms were obtained. Latent anxiety-depression, disruptive behavior, and attention problem constructs were developed using multitrait, multimethod procedures. Saliva samples were collected in the morning, midday, and late afternoon on multiple days and were later assayed for testosterone. Latent constructs were derived for testosterone level and diurnal variation across the six sampling occasions. Structural equations modeled relationships between problem behavior and intra- and interindividual differences in testosterone separately by gender. For boys, lower levels of testosterone and testosterone levels that decreased more slowly across the day were related to higher levels of anxiety-depression and attention problems. These associations were not moderated by pubertal development. For girls, steep declines in testosterone production across the day related to higher levels of disruptive behavior problems, but this association was only evident after including pubertal development as a moderator in the model. These findings raise novel questions regarding the nature and magnitude of links between testosterone and problem behavior in youth.

Predicting Mothers' Beliefs about Preschool-Aged Children's Social Behavior: Evidence for Maternal Attitudes Moderating Child Effects

Maternal beliefs about childrens social behavior may be important contributors to socialization and development, but little is known about how such beliefs form. Transactional models suggest that childrens characteristics may influence parents. At 2 years of age, the shy and aggressive behaviors of 65 toddlers (28 females) were observed during interactions with an unfamiliar peer; as well, mothers described the extent to which they advocated protective and authoritarian childrearing attitudes. These variables were used to predict mothers emotions, attributions, parenting goals, and socialization strategies in response to vignettes depicting aggressive and withdrawn child behaviors 2 years later. Most child effects were moderated by maternal attitudes or gender effects. Authoritarian mothers of aggressive toddlers were most likely to report high control and anger, to blame their children for aggression, and to focus on obtaining compliance rather than teaching skills to their children. Protective mothers reported that they would use warmth and involvement to comfort withdrawn children, especially their daughters.

In Search of HPA Axis Dysregulation in Child and Adolescent Depression

Dysregulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis in adults with major depressive disorder is among the most consistent and robust biological findings in psychiatry. Given the importance of the adolescent transition to the development and recurrence of depressive phenomena over the lifespan, it is important to have an integrative perspective on research investigating the various components of HPA axis functioning among depressed young people. The present narrative review synthesizes evidence from the following five categories of studies conducted with children and adolescents: (1) those examining the HPA system’s response to the dexamethasone suppression test (DST); (2) those assessing basal HPA axis functioning; (3) those administering corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) challenge; (4) those incorporating psychological probes of the HPA axis; and (5) those examining HPA axis functioning in children of depressed mothers. Evidence is generally consistent with models of developmental psychopathology that hypothesize that atypical HPA axis functioning precedes the emergence of clinical levels of depression and that the HPA axis becomes increasingly dysregulated from child to adult manifestations of depression. Multidisciplinary approaches and longitudinal research designs that extend across development are needed to more clearly and usefully elucidate the role of the HPA axis in depression.

A cross-cultural study of behavioral inhibition in toddlers: East-West-North-South

The prevalence of behavioral inhibition in toddlers was examined in five cultures. Participants in this study included 110 Australian, 108 Canadian, 151 Chinese, 104 Italian, and 113 South Korean toddlers and their mothers who were observed during a structured observational laboratory session. Matched procedures were used in each country, with children encountering an unfamiliar stranger with a truck and a robot. Indicators of inhibition included the length of time toddlers delayed before approaching the stranger and the duration of contact with their mother while the stranger was in the room. Results were generally consistent with expectations and showed differences between eastern and western cultures; Italian and Australian toddlers were less inhibited than toddlers from the other countries, whereas Chinese and South Korean toddlers were more inhibited. The implications of these findings are discussed and a research agenda for further exploration of inhibition is outlined.

Adrenocortical Functioning in Boys with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Examining Subtypes of ADHD and Associated Comorbid Conditions

Disruptions to hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function have been associated with varying forms of psychopathology in children. Studies suggesting children with ADHD have blunted HPA function have been complicated by the prevalence of comorbid diagnoses and heterogeneity of ADHD. The goals of this research were to assess the relations between waking and stress–response salivary cortisol levels and comorbid disruptive behavior (DBD) and anxiety (AnxD) disorders and problems in boys with ADHD, and to examine whether cortisol levels varied across ADHD subtypes. One hundred seventy elementary school-age boys with ADHD provided salivary cortisol at waking and in reaction to venipuncture. Parent reports were used to assess boys’ psychiatric diagnoses and severity of behavioral problems. Boys’ comorbid AnxD and anxiety problems were associated with greater cortisol reactivity, whereas boys’ comorbid DBD and oppositional problems predicted diminished adrenocortical activity. Reactive cortisol increases were greatest in boys with ADHD and comorbid AnxD, but without DBD. ADHD subtypes were not differentially associated with waking, pre-stress baseline, or reactive cortisol levels. However, comorbid DBD predicted decreased cortisol reactivity in boys with inattentive and hyperactive subtypes of ADHD, but not in boys with combined subtype of ADHD. The results clarify previous patterns of distinct and divergent dysregulations of HPA function associated with boys’ varying kinds of psychopathology.

The New Friends Vignettes: Measuring Parental Psychological Control that Confers Risk for Anxious Adjustment in Preschoolers.

This investigation examined the links between preschoolers’ internalizing problems and anxiety-related social difficulties and two aspects of maternal and paternal psychological control: overprotection and critical control. Some 115 mothers and 92 fathers completed the New Friends Vignettes (NFV), a new measure of psychological control and supportive parenting designed to assess parenting relevant to young children’s internalizing problems and anxiety. Children’s anxious behaviors with peers at daycare or preschool were observed, mothers reported on preschoolers’ internalizing problems, and teachers reported on children’s internalizing problems and isolated behaviors. The NFV scales demonstrated good internal consistency and one-year test—retest reliability for mothers and fathers, and moderate convergent validity with observed parenting for mothers. Maternal overprotection and paternal critical control predicted more internalizing problems and anxious adjustment in preschoolers, with some associations being stronger for sons than daughters. Conversely, paternal supportiveness predicted fewer internalizing difficulties at preschool in daughters only. Children’s anxious behaviors predicted increasing paternal overprotection, and their internalizing problems at home and preschool tended to predict increasing maternal overprotection and critical control. Results support the reliability and validity of the New Friends Vignettes, and are indicative of parent differences in socialization processes, gender differences in risk for internalizing problems, and possible bidirectional pathways of influence in the socialization of internalizing trajectories.

Cardiovascular and affective responses to social stress in adolescents with internalizing and externalizing problems

Behavioral responses to stress and challenge are based in emotional and physiological arousal reactions. Adolescents with maladaptive or problematic behavior patterns, such as internalizing or externalizing problems, are likely to show atypical emotional and physiological reactions to stress. Relations between problems and reactions to stress were examined in a sample of 55 young adolescents with normal to clinical levels of internalizing and externalizing problems. Youth had their self-reported emotional states, heart rate, and blood pressure levels measured before and after engaging in two socially challenging, evaluative manipulations. Internalizing problems were associated with less positive affect but greater anxiety and cardiovascular arousal, whereas externalizing problems predicted greater hostility and positive affect but less cardiovascular arousal. The necessity of recognizing and incorporating comorbid characteristics and multiple response systems into studies of the links between problems and reactivity is emphasized in the discussion.