Mayer Stefanie E, Abelson James L, Lopez-Duran Nestor L
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, 2261 East Hall, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Rachel Upjohn Building, 4250 Plymouth Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Horm Behav. 2014 Jul;66(2):457-65. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2014.06.019. Epub 2014 Jul 11.
Trait and contextual factors can shape individual and group differences in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) response to stress; but the ways in which these factors may interact with each other to modulate stress activity have rarely been examined. Here, we investigated whether the association between a temperamental self-regulatory trait - Effortful Control (EC) - and HPA axis stress response is moderated by type of laboratory stress in sixty-five children (35 boys). EC was measured at ages 3 and 6 using age-appropriate laboratory batteries as well as mother reports. HPA axis responses were measured at age 7 by randomly assigning children to one of two laboratory stress tasks (frustration vs. fear). Results indicated that EC interacted with stress context in predicting cortisol response. Specifically, lower EC was associated with greater cortisol response (steeper reactivity slopes) in the context of a frustration stressor but this was reversed in a fear context where lower EC was associated with flatter, more gradual activation. It is likely that different components of EC, such as emotion regulation and attention, differentially interact with the stress context. These types of effects and interactions need to be more thoroughly understood in order to meaningfully interpret cortisol reactivity data and better characterize the role of the HPA axis in human psychopathology.
特质和情境因素会塑造下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴对应激反应的个体和群体差异；但这些因素相互作用以调节应激活动的方式却鲜有研究。在此，我们调查了在65名儿童（35名男孩）中，气质性自我调节特质——努力控制（EC）——与HPA轴应激反应之间的关联是否受到实验室应激类型的调节。在3岁和6岁时，使用适合年龄的实验室测评工具以及母亲的报告来测量EC。在7岁时，通过将儿童随机分配到两项实验室应激任务（挫折与恐惧）之一来测量HPA轴反应。结果表明，在预测皮质醇反应方面，EC与应激情境存在交互作用。具体而言，在挫折应激源情境下，较低的EC与更大的皮质醇反应（更陡峭的反应斜率）相关，但在恐惧情境中则相反，较低的EC与更平缓、更渐进的激活相关。EC的不同组成部分，如情绪调节和注意力，可能与应激情境存在不同的相互作用。为了有意义地解释皮质醇反应性数据并更好地描述HPA轴在人类精神病理学中的作用，需要更全面地理解这些类型的效应和相互作用。
